Slovenia to recognize Palestinian state mid-June

So, Prime Minister, your government has LED this push to initiate the procedure for the recognition of a Palestinian state. You are urging other EU countries to join with you, and your country hopes that this will be a form of leverage to end the conflict in Gaza. Is this leverage? And if so, how will the how will this end the conflict? So the situation in Gaza is tragic beyond words. What we are witnessing now is like unprecedented the human catastrophe the man made, famine the withheld in all violation of all the international human rights and whatever we can do to alleviate the situation is better than nothing. The recognition itself was meant to come at the end of the two state solution process. But what we are witnessing now is just we cannot stand still. So the idea is that we initiate the process immediately showing the solidarity with the Palestinian people immediately and then clearly stating the expectations to both sides, both sides, to cease the fire, to release the hostages and work towards the two state solution. According to our opinion, that's really the only possible solution to find peace and stability in the in the Middle East and it is this notion is widespread around the world. So I think we shall do everything we can to obtain that. Prime Minister Israel has responded condemning the move, claiming that this move constitutes a prize for terrorism that would reduce the chances for a negotiated resolution to the conflict. What's your response to that? Well, there will be many calls in the past weeks and months to Israel to stall the attacks, to come to the negotiation table and start negotiating for the ceasefire. Unfortunately, Israel was not hitting the calls. So I don't think there is anything more to say to that. Again, we just initiated the proceedings. We want to have a dialogue throughout the process, but in order to have the dialogue, the other side has to be willing to talk. Unfortunately, that's not what we are seeing at the moment. Of course, the US ambassador to the UN spoke about this. I just want to play some sound for our viewers. President Biden has been clear that sustainable peace in the region can be achieved only through a two state solution with Israel's security guaranteed, where Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side with equal measures of freedom and dignity. It remains the US view that unilateral measures at the UN and on the ground will not advance this goal. Prime Minister, what's your response to that? Well, we do support the same position. However, we also support what just this week the Arab League leaders were saying, and that is that first and utmost we need to seek the ceasefire and also that we shall start discussing within the United Nation the possibility of sending the United Nation peacekeeping force to the Gaza as soon as possible immediately after the ceasefire. I think just looking into what is going on at the moment is not enough. We should look beyond what happens at the day after and hope that the day after will come as soon as possible. We know at the last UN vote, more than 70% of UN members supported the move to give Palestinians new rights and privileges. But of course that that doesn't guarantee UN membership. What needs to happen to encourage other nations to get on board? I think working through dialogue is really what will start shifting the positions. But the other thing is also the pressure from the public. We can see it throughout Europe immediately, already now happening not just in Slovenia but other countries as well. And I think that will shape the position of the politicians as well, especially on the brink of the European elections. So that could be a momentum that Palestinian people can really benefit from. And of course, Prime Minister, your country along with Spain, Ireland, Malta helped initiate this in March. What are the next steps? So I just signed the letter to all the my colleagues from the other Member States calling to them to join our process of recognition process which will clearly state the expectations to all the parties involved and that we can assess on a weekly basis. And just by being united at the European level, I think we can be much more significant player on the international seems especially in the Middle East at the moment, there's lots of divergent between the EU member States and that that that doesn't help to bring peace to the Middle East unfortunately. So the first thing to do is forge unity at the European level, and after that I think there is a possibility to put more pressure on both sides to come to peace in the Middle East.