Who recognizes the State of Palestine and who doesn’t?

Norway, Ireland, and Spain have decided to officially recognize Palestine as a state, with the announcement set to take effect on May 28. Sputnik has provided a list detailing which countries do and do not recognize Palestine as an independent state.

◾️The State of Palestine is recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member countries, including 3 new European states.

◾️Notably, Russia and China, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, are among those recognizing Palestine, along with the majority of countries in the Global South (excluding Myanmar, Eritrea, and Cameroon).

◾️In Europe, a Palestinian state is recognized by Bulgaria, Hungary, Cyprus, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, as well as Norway, Ireland, and Spain.

◾️Consequently, 53 countries do not recognize Palestinian independence. That said, even though not a single G7 country recognizes Palestine, all of them maintain informal diplomatic relations.

◾️South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the countries of Oceania do not recognize the State of Palestine.

◾️The majority of European countries, including Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, France, Finland, Greece, Italy, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Moldova, North Macedonia, Portugal, Slovenia, the UK, and Armenia, maintain informal diplomatic relations with Palestine but do not officially recognize it as a state.

◾️Among Latin American countries, Mexico, Panama and Jamaica do not recognize Palestinian independence.

◾️Israel, a UN member, undoubtedly does not recognize the State of Palestine.

◾️Palestine does not have full UN membership, since it is not recognized by 3 states who are permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely the US, the UK and France. Consequently, Palestine holds observer status within the global body, just like the Vatican.

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Ebrahim Raisi will be buried tomorrow before sunset at the Razavi shrine in Mashhad, Iranian TV quoted Vice President Mohsen Mansouri as saying

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei embraces the grandchildren of late President Ebrahim Raisi

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❗️In recent days, the Russian Sever Battlegroup has managed to expand the front line; it is already spreading to the eastern part of the Kharkov region, said the head of the Russian administration of the region, Vitaly Ganchev.

According to him, almost 300 square kilometers of the region’s territory are under the control of Russian forces.

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❗️Ukrainian forces attacked the territory of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, according to the plant's press service

A kamikaze drone attack in the area of the power plant’s transport workshop was recorded. There were no casualties or critical damage, the press service added.

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New details emerge of chopper crash that killed Iran's President Raisi

The weather at the time of the helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi did not give any cause for concern, the late Iranian president’s Chief of Staff Gholam Hossein Esmaili told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

“The weather was clear, there was no weather condition to be worried about,” he said, as quoted by the agency.

The official was on board one of the two helicopters from Raisi's three-chopper convoy that managed to reach its destination safely. After half an hour of flight, they observed a “small patch of clouds,” but there was no fog, Esmaili noted.

“There was fog on the ground, but not up in the air where we were advancing with the helicopters," he recalled.

The pilot of the helicopter carrying the president gave instructions to gain altitude and continue moving above the clouds. Those on board the chopper with Esmaili did not feel any excess turbulence, and after ascending, observed no more clouds. There had not been any forecasts mentioning disturbances in the weather, the Iranian official noted.

He added that once their pilot discovered that the presidential helicopter was missing, they circled around the area a couple of times. They made several unsuccessful attempts to make contact with those on the presidential helicopter, until finally Ayatollah Ale-Hashem, the Friday imam of Tabriz, answered. He said he was “not feeling well,” and didn’t know what had happened, but described trees surrounding him. Ale-Hashem later also died.

Upon realization that the chopper had crash landed, a search team was formed, and immediate emergency help was requested.

Iranian authorities said the helicopter crash landed in a remote mountainous region due to poor weather conditions and thick fog. A probe into the crash launched by the Iranian authorities is ongoing.

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Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Sputnik's parent media group Rossiya Segodnya, said that she has lists of 500 Ukrainian prisoners of war, whom Kiev has been refusing to exchange for four months, and promised to publish them.

"Zelensky has selected 38 people from Azov* [Battalion] and the like and is ready to take only them. Ukraine does not need the rest of the Ukrainian soldiers," she said.

*Azov is recognized by Russia as a terrorist organization and banned

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