US Lambastes UK, Canada, France For Planning To Recognize Palestinian State

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) WASHINGTON, July 31 (KUNA) -- US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday harshly criticized the United Kingdom, Canada and France for announcing plans to recognize the State of Palestine by next September.
Those announcements are "irrelevant," Rubio said in an interview with the Fox News, adding, "I mean, it's annoying to some, but it's irrelevant. It doesn't mean anything."
"First of all, none of these countries have the ability to create a Palestinian state. There can be no Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to it.
"Number two, they can't even tell you where this Palestinian state is. They can't tell you who will govern it. And I think number three, it's counterproductive," he said.
Rubio even considered the US allies' plans as a reward to Hamas.
"-- At the end of the day, the Hamas side is the Palestinian statehood side. So you are creating this reward," he argued.
Rubio claimed that UK, Canada and France's announcements are undermining ceasefire talks.
"And by the way, they are hurting ceasefire talks, because Hamas is sitting there saying - that's the problem with the UK statement.
"The UK is like, well, if Israel doesn't agree to a ceasefire by September, we're going to recognize a Palestinian state. So if I'm Hamas, I say, you know what, let's not allow there to be a ceasefire," he said.
"If Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire, it guarantees a Palestinian state will be recognized by all these countries in September. So they're not going to agree to a ceasefire. I mean, it's so clumsy." (end)
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