EU rejects Palestine’s unilateral statehood proposal as ‘somewhat premature’

THE European Union yesterday joined the US in discouraging Palestinian intentions to seek international recognition of an independent state, urging instead a return to stalled peace talks with Israel.

“I don’t think we are there yet,” Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told reporters in Brussels.

“I would hope that we would be in a position to recognise a Palestinian state but there has to be one first, so I think it is somewhat premature,” he said.