This comes after around five months of the Maltese government dodging this recognition by waiting for the “right conditions”. The island’s foreign ministry has been echoing this argument ever since Palestine was recognised as an independent state by Spain, Ireland and Norway in May. Interestingly, two months earlier, Malta joined these countries, as well as Slovenia, in a statement agreeing to “take steps” toward recognising a Palestinian state.

Malta has been very vague about what these conditions entail and seem to be repeating the reasoning of other Western nations.

This bold move comes a day after the anniversary of the 7th October attacks which marked the start of Israel’s siege of Gaza. Around two weeks ago, a significant escalation between Hezbollah and Israel also erupted and the latter has since approached its military campaign in Lebanon with similar brutality.

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