The Trump administration boycotts U.N. summit on Palestinian statehood co-sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, as critics call the event a stumbling block to peace efforts in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia can normalize ties with Israel only after the establishment of a Palestinian state, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said, reiterating the kingdom’s stance days after President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize it in September.

The editorial manager for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, Andrea Tornielli, called for a “two-state solution” and recognition of Palestine as a state.

Two government officials said Britain was actively weighing the recognition of a Palestinian state, in a shift driven by public pressure over starvation in Gaza.

France has announced it will recognize the state of Palestine, a move that could shift discussions about the Middle East’s future.

Any British prime minister considering the supremely sensitive question of whether to recognise Palestine as a state will have to weigh America’s likely reaction.

Keir Starmer will need to weigh up whether the timing of recognition of a Palestinian state is more important for the peace process in the Middle East or his own domestic political problems, says

A United Nations High-level conference on a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine got underway in New York on Monday.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Saturday that recognising the State of Palestine before it is established could be counterproductive. "I am very much in favour of the State of Palestine but I am not in favour of recognising it prior to establishing it,

Tom Cotton, a Republican Senator from Arkansas, responded to Macron's statement by saying on X: "This is a shameful endorsement of terrorists. The best way for this conflict to end is to back Israel in its righteous mission of rescuing the hostages and defeating Hamas."