KABUL (Pajhwok): The leaders of six countries, including France, have moved to formally recognise the State of Palestine at a high-level summit ahead of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in New York, Al Jazeera reports. Alongside France, which co-convened the meeting with Saudi Arabia on Monday in New York, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco announced their recognition of Palestinian statehood. Leaders from Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom – which had formally recognised Palestine a day earlier – also addressed the meeting. “It falls on us, this responsibility, to do everything in our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution,” Macron declared. “Today, I announce that France recognises the State of Palestine.”These additional countries now join some 147 of the 193 UN member states that had already formally recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.