SYDNEY: Australia’s foreign minister Penny Wong said Canberra would consider recognition of a Palestinian state, a shift in policy as the international community looks for a two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
In a speech on Tuesday evening, Wong backed comments by Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron who has said that recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations, would make a two-state solution irreversible.
Wong said the international community is discussing Palestinian statehood “as a way of building momentum toward a two-state solution.”
“A two-state solution is the only hope to break the endless cycle of violence,” she said, speaking at the Australian National University.
The so-called two-state solution has long been the basis for international peace efforts to resolve the long Israel-Palestinian conflict, but the process has been stalled for a decade even before the present war in the Palestinian enclave Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Palestinians aspire to having an independent state in the West Bank and East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel since the 1967 Middle East War — and including Gaza.
Israel on Sunday formalized its opposition to what it called the “unilateral recognition” of Palestinian statehood, and said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations.
Spain is among other Western countries pushing for such recognition and is a main proponent of such a move within the European Union.
Wong, however, ruled out a role for Hamas, which rules Gaza.
“There is no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state,” she said.
The Palestinian Authority last week formally asked for renewed consideration by the United Nations Security Council of its 2011 application to become a full member of the world body. The Palestinians are a non-member observer state at the United Nations, the same status as the Holy See.
The United Nations Security Council president on Monday referred the Palestinian Authority’s application to become a full UN member to the admission committee.
Wong said “those who claim recognition is rewarding an enemy” were wrong because Israel’s own security depends on a two-state solution.
“There is no long-term security for Israel unless it is recognized by the countries of its region,” she said.
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Australia to consider recognizing Palestinian state, foreign minister says
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Australia to consider recognizing Palestinian state, foreign minister says
- Wong said the international community is discussing Palestinian statehood “as a way of building momentum toward a two-state solution“
- “A two-state solution is the only hope to break the endless cycle of violence,” she said
US strikes another alleged drug-trafficking boat in Eastern Pacific
WASHINGTON: The US military said Thursday that it has carried out another deadly strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
US Southern Command said on social media that the boat “was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations.” It said the strike killed two people. A video linked to the post shows a boat moving through the water before exploding in flames.
The strike was announced just hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that “some top cartel drug-traffickers” in the region “have decided to cease all narcotics operations INDEFINITELY due to recent (highly effective) kinetic strikes in the Caribbean.” However, Hegseth did not provide any details or information to back up this claim, made in a post on his personal account on social media.
Neither US Southern Command nor the Pentagon would answer follow-up questions about Hegseth’s claim.
The boat attacks, which began in September 2025, have slowed in frequency since January — a month that only saw one strike after the raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. By contrast, the Pentagon struck more than dozen boats in December 2025.
Thursday’s attack raises the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes on alleged drug boats to 128 people. Last week, the military said that figure was up to 126 people, with the inclusion of those presumed dead after being lost at sea. That figure included 116 people who were killed immediately in at least 36 attacks carried out since early September in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, US Southern Command said. Ten others are believed dead because searchers did not locate them following a strike.
Meanwhile, the families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in a Trump administration boat strike in Octobersued the federal government last week, calling the attack a war crime and part of an “unprecedented and manifestly unlawful US military campaign.” The suit is believed to be the first wrongful death case arising from the campaign and will test the legal justification of the attacks, which many experts say are a brazen violation of the laws of armed conflict.
President Donald Trump has said the US is in “armed conflict” with cartels in Latin America and has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs. But his administration has offered little evidence to support its claims of killing “narcoterrorists.”
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