Canada plans to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly next month, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Wednesday, a major policy shift that drew an angry response from US President Donald Trump and was rejected by Israel.
Carney said the move was necessary to preserve hopes of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a long-standing Canadian goal that was “being eroded before our eyes.”
“Canada intends to recognize the State of Palestine at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025,” the prime minister said.
Photo: Reuters
That makes Canada — a G7 nation — the third country, following recent announcements by France and the UK, to signal plans to recognize a Palestinian state next month.
The worsening suffering of civilians in Gaza left “no room for delay in coordinated international action to support peace,” Carney said.
Israel blasted Canada’s announcement as part of a “distorted campaign of international pressure,” while Trump warned that trade negotiations with Ottawa might not proceed smoothly.
“Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” the US president wrote on his Truth Social platform. “That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them.”
Asked by reporters if there was a scenario where Canada could change its position before the UN meeting, Carney said that “there’s a scenario [but] possibly one that I can’t imagine.”
Canada’s intention “is predicated on the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to much-needed reforms,” he said, referring to the body led by President Mahmoud Abbas, which has civil authority in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Carney said his plans were further predicated on Abbas’s pledge to “hold general elections in 2026 in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.”
Carney’s announcement has positioned Canada alongside France, after French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would formally recognize a Palestinian state during the UN meeting, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move.
The Israeli embassy in Ottawa said “recognizing a Palestinian state in the absence of accountable government, functioning institutions or benevolent leadership, rewards and legitimizes the monstrous barbarity of Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.”
Abbas welcomed the announcement as a “historic” decision, while France said the countries would work together “to revive the prospect of peace in the region.”
Canada’s plan goes a step further than this week’s announcement by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said the UK would only formally recognize the State of Palestine if Israel fails to take “substantive steps,” including including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza.
A two-state solution was growing increasingly remote, with a vote in Israel’s parliament “calling for the annexation of the West Bank,” as well as Israel’s “ongoing failure” to prevent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Carney said.
He framed his decision as one aimed at safeguarding Israel’s future.
“Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state, and one that recognizes Israel’s inalienable right to security and peace,” Carney said.
POLITICAL PATRIARCHS: Recent clashes between Thailand and Cambodia are driven by an escalating feud between rival political families, analysts say The dispute over Thailand and Cambodia’s contested border, which dates back more than a century to disagreements over colonial-era maps, has broken into conflict before. However, the most recent clashes, which erupted on Thursday, have been fueled by another factor: a bitter feud between two powerful political patriarchs. Cambodian Senate President and former prime minister Hun Sen, 72, and former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, 76, were once such close friends that they reportedly called one another brothers. Hun Sen has, over the years, supported Thaksin’s family during their long-running power struggle with Thailand’s military. Thaksin and his sister Yingluck stayed
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
‘ARBITRARY’ CASE: Former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila has maintained his innocence and called the country’s courts an instrument of oppression Former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) president Joseph Kabila went on trial in absentia on Friday on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants, an AFP reporter at the court said. Kabila, who has lived outside the DR Congo for two years, stands accused at a military court of plotting to overthrow the government of Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi — a charge that could yield a death sentence. He also faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the anti-government force M23, the charge sheet said. Other charges include “taking part in an insurrection movement,” “crime against the
RSS