Australia to consider recognising Palestinian state, foreign minister says

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 recognising 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 towards 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.