Slovenia's Foreign Minister Miro Cerar said on Wednesday that there is consensus in Slovenia on the issue of recognition of the State of Palestine and that Slovenia will do that once a group of European Union member states are ready to do so, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) Wafa news agency reports.
Speaking during a meeting with the PA “foreign minister” Riyad Malki at the headquarters of the Slovenian Foreign Ministry in the capital, Ljubljana, Cerar expressed his government's willingness to develop bilateral relations with the PA in all fields, especially in the economic sphere.
A report last year indicated that Slovenia would recognize the “state of Palestine” in response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Slovenia's president later cast doubt on that move happening, explaining he would only back the recognition of a Palestinian state "in circumstances that would contribute to the solution of its bilateral issues with Israel but not to the worsening of relations".
Several European countries have recognized “Palestine” in recent years, but those moves were symbolic ones that have little, if any, actual diplomatic effect.
PA officials have been pressuring those European countries to officially recognize “Palestine”, in a move meant to bypass direct peace talks with Israel.