MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Palestine does not expect the decision of European countries to recognize it as a state to have any effect on the position of the United States, Palestinian Ambassador to Austria and permanent observer to the United Nations in Vienna Salah Abdel Shafi has told RIA Novosti.
«No. But in any case, international pressure will grow. For example, we have already seen during the vote in the [United Nations] General Assembly that the US is becoming more and more isolated internationally. Let me remind you that there were only nine states, including the US, who voted against Palestinian membership in the UN,» the ambassador said when asked whether he expected European countries’ recognition of Palestine to have an impact on the position of the US.
Until Wednesday, Palestine was recognized by nine EU member states. Eight countries — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia — recognized it in 1988 before joining the European Union, and Sweden in 2014.
