Canada will recognize Palestinian state at UN General Assembly, says Carney

Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday, a dramatic policy shift he said was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution.

“Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025," Carney said.

With Wednesday's announcement, Carney positioned Canada alongside France, after President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.

Read more'Enough was enough': Why France is now taking a stand on Palestinian statehood

Macron's announcement drew condemnation from Israel, which said the move "rewards terror," while US President Donald Trump dismissed the decision as pointless.

Carney said his decision was informed by Canada's "long-standing" belief in a two-state solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

"That possibility of a two-state solution is being eroded before our eyes," the prime minister told reporters in Ottawa.

He referenced Israel's "ongoing failure" to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid its war against Hamas, as well the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

"For decades, it was hoped that (a two-state solution) would be achieved as part of a peace process built around a negotiated settlement between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority," he said. 

"Regrettably, this approach is no longer tenable."

Israel condemned Canada's plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly, blasting Prime Minister Mark Carney's announcement as part of "distorted campaign of international pressure."

"Recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions, or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on October 7, 2023," the Israeli embassy in Ottawa said in a statement.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)