The UK will consider recognizing a Palestinian state as part of joint efforts to achieve an "irreversible" peace solution, British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said, the Guardian reports.
He stressed that the Palestinians should be given a political horizon to foster peace in the Middle East.
Cameron is embarking on his fourth visit to the region since being appointed Foreign Secretary last November.
London has a responsibility to determine what a Palestinian state would look like, he said at a reception in Westminster.
The Palestinian people would have to be shown "irreversible progress" towards a two-state solution, Cameron said.
"As that happens, we will, with allies, consider the issue of recognizing a Palestinian state, including at the UN," he told the Conservative Middle East Council.
He also called on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and said it was "ridiculous" that vital British and other aid was being sent back to the border.
Cameron said that the last 30 years have been a story of Israel's failure because it failed to provide security to its citizens.
"Only by recognizing that failure," he said, "will there be peace and progress."
The UK has long supported a two-state solution, where Israelis and Palestinians could live side by side in separate countries.
Cameron says that the UK could give formal, diplomatic recognition to a Palestinian state not as part of a final peace deal, but earlier, during the negotiations themselves.
At the same time, there would have to be a new Palestinian government that would "stand up quickly" with "technocratic and good leaders" capable of governing Gaza, he said.
"Along with that, almost most important of all, is to give the Palestinian people a political horizon so that they can see that there will be irreversible progress towards a two-state solution and, crucially, the establishment of a Palestinian state," he added.
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