Recognise Palestine now to avoid 'deadly status quo', says its ambassador to UK

Making recognition of a Palestinian state subject to ever more conditions will only reinforce a "deadly status quo" and be seen as siding with an apartheid regime, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK has said.

- Patrick Wintour

Writing for the Guardian website, Husam Zomlot made an impassioned plea to the Labour government to fulfil a manifesto commitment by recognising Palestine in the run-up to a high-level UN conference on the two-state solution in New York next week.

Zomlot wrote: "Recognition is neither a reward for one party nor a punishment for another. It is a long-overdue affirmation of the Palestinian people's unconditional right to exist and live freely in our homeland."

Discussions between western powers are going down to the wire before the conference starts on Tuesday, while the US is warning the summit is counterproductive and should be boycotted.

At issue is whether a group of countries that have not yet recognised Palestine do so around the conference or instead say recognition is being offered, but on a timeline and subject to conditions. France and the UK are conferring intensely.