The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Sweden’s ambassador to Israel to Jerusalem in the wake of the statement by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven this weekend that his government will recognize the Palestinian Authority as a sovereign country.
In a statement issued Sunday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said that he “regrets that the new prime minister was quick to issue statements regarding the position of Sweden on recognition of a Palestinian state. He apparently has not yet had sufficient time to study the matter and to understand that it is the Palestinians who have for the past 20 years been an obstacle to reaching an agreement with Israel.”
Liberman added that “Prime Minister Stefan Löfven must understand that no declaration and no measure by an external party can serve as a substitute for direct negotiations between the parties and a solution that will be part of an overall arrangement between Israel and the entire Arab world.
“If what concerns the Prime Minister of Sweden in his inaugural address is the situation in the Middle East, he would better focus on the more urgent problems in the region, such as the daily mass murder taking place in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere in the region.”
Sweden’s prime minister told lawmakers Friday that formal recognition of the entity as a sovereign nation is a statement to present the “two state” solution as fact.
Muslims account for nearly 10 percent of Sweden’s population and the country has accepted nearly 100,000 refugees this year alone from Iraq and Syria. It is no coincidence that in Sweden, as in other European nations, the overwhelming Muslim demographic in leftist parties tends to tilt government policies in favor of the Palestinian Authority.
Turkish-born Mehmet Kaplan was recently appointed to be Sweden’s new Minister of Urbanization, according to Iran’s semi-official FARS news agency.
Kaplan was among those arrested for attempting to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza in a “humanitarian aid” flotilla of six ships in May 2010. He was present on the Turkish IHH-sponsored Mavi Marmara vessel, which when searched was found to be carrying no aid items whatsoever and instead bore armed terror activists primed and ready for battle.