U.S. President Joe Biden believes a Palestinian state should be achieved through negotiations, not unilateral recognition, the White House said on Wednesday after Ireland, Spain and Norway said they would recognize a Palestinian state this month, Reuters reported.

Washington’s reaction appeared to signal U.S. dismay that the three European nations announced an intent to proceed with unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, which does not exist in practice.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told a regular news briefing each country could make its own decision on recognition of a Palestinian state, but that Biden thinks direct negotiations by the parties is the best approach.

“President Biden believes that a two-state solution that guarantees Israel’s security and also a future of dignity and security for the Palestinian people is the best way to bring about long-term security and stability for everyone in the region,” Sullivan said.

“President Biden … has been equally emphatic on the record that that two-state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations through the parties, not for unilateral recognition.”

Sullivan had been asked if the United States was concerned that other nations might follow suit in recognizing a Palestinian state. He said the U.S. would communicate its consistent position to partners “see what unfolds.”

WAR IN GAZA

Decades of U.S. efforts have failed to achieve a “two-state solution” with Israel living alongside a Palestinian state encompassing the West Bank, ruled by the Palestinian Authority (PA), and Gaza, ruled by the Hamas Islamist movement since it seized the coastal strip from the PA in a brief 2007 civil war, read the report.

Israel began an offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led gunmen attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages, according to Israeli figures.

More than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then, health officials in the Hamas-run enclave say.

Israel is now attacking Rafah in southern Gaza, saying it wants to root out Hamas militants. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled Rafah since the start of the assault, and the main access routes for aid into Gaza have been blocked, Reuters reported.

Sullivan said he was briefed on Israeli plans to minimize civilian harm in Rafah during a weekend visit to the region, and Washington will track whether the assault causes widespread death and destruction or is more precise and proportional.

“We now have to see what unfolds from here,” he said.

He said aid was flowing in from a pier in Gaza, and that it was wrong for Israel to withhold funds from the West Bank.

The Biden administration also hopes to broker an arrangement leading Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations. As part of that process, Saudi Arabia has demanded the Gaza conflict end and a path to a Palestinian state, something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be likely to find hard to accept.

High-ranking Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) officials including the deputy prime minister, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund, and foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, attended the late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral in Tehran on Wednesday.

During his visit, the deputy prime minister will meet with Iranian government officials and the family of the late president in order to extend condolences on behalf of the Afghan people, Baradar’s office said in a statement.

According to the statement, Muttaqi accompanied Baradar.

Iran’s supreme leader presided over a funeral Wednesday for the country’s late president, foreign minister and others killed in Sunday’s helicopter crash.

Tens of thousands of people later followed a procession of their caskets through the capital, Tehran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei held the service at Tehran University, the caskets of the dead draped in Iranian flags with their pictures on them.

In attendance were top leaders of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one of the country’s major power centers, Associated Press reported.

Also on hand was Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Also expected to attend services in Tehran were Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani along with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Even Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry traveled to Tehran, despite diplomatic relations between the countries being severed after the 1979 revolution. Egypt and Iran have recently discussed reestablishing ties.

Raisi, 63, had been discussed as a possible successor for Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Khamenei. The only other person suggested was Khamenei’s 55-year-old son, Mojtaba.

However, concerns have been raised over the position going to a family member, particularly after the revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah.

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting in the Kazakh capital on Tuesday that the Islamic Emirate should adhere to the principle of inclusiveness and respect the rights of all Afghans.

“The Contact Group for Afghanistan should be revived in the Shanghai Organization (SCO) in order to create a platform for practical cooperation,” he said.

Dar, who was in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, for the two-day meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the SCO, also again called on the Islamic Emirate to stamp out terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

“We ask the interim government of Afghanistan to take concrete and effective measures so that the Afghan soil is not used against any country.”

The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly rejected Pakistan’s accusations and has said it does not allow Afghanistan’s soil to be used against any country.

Dar meanwhile said the Islamic Emirate should respect the principles accepted by the world, including participation and respect for the rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls.

He also called for meaningful relations between the international community and the Islamic Emirate in order to improve the economic conditions and address the humanitarian situation of Afghans.