Sweden PM says nation will recognize Palestinian state

Sweden's new prime minister said Friday his country will be the first Western European nation to recognize a Palestinian state. The move provides diplomatic support but no practical impact on Palestinians' aspirations for statehood.

"The conflict between Israel can only be solved with a two-state solution, negotiated in accordance with international law," Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said during his inaugural address to Parliament, according to Reuters.

"A two-state solution requires mutual recognition and a will to peaceful co-existence. Sweden will therefore recognize the state of Palestine," Lofven said.

The Oslo Accord of 1993, which began the now-stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, stipulated that a Palestinian state can be formed only through negotiations.

The last round of U.S.-brokered talks fell apart in June and were followed by a third major conflict in six years between Israel and Hamas, the State Department-designated terror group that governs Gaza. More than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed in the fighting.

Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East peace negotiator, said the Swedish move would have the same practical impact as the United Nations General Assembly's recognition of a Palestinian state in 2012. The Swedes would be recognizing a "state" with no set borders, territory under control of competing factions and no real capital, Miller said.

"In the end, it's a joke, actually," Miller said. "It confers nothing. It could create a wave of support for growing international recognition of a Palestinian state, but what does it really mean?"

Though formal recognition is no substitute for an agreement with Israel, the move is more than symbolic, says Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.

"It doesn't change a thing on the ground," Ibish said. "It changes the number of countries that have recognized the Palestinian state. It changes the Western commitment to a two-state solution, (and) it does put more pressure on Israel to make concessions."

The move supports the strategy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who governs the West Bank. Last week in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Abbas called for achieving a Palestinian state alongside Israel through non-violent diplomacy. That contrasts with Hamas, which wants to achieve a state through violence, Ibish said.

A majority of the European Union's 28 nations do not recognize Palestinian statehood. Those that do are Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, according to the BBC. Several are former Eastern-bloc countries that recognized Palestinian statehood before joining the EU, according to Reuters.