Pedro Sanchez had previously announced joint move with three other European countries; statement comes as Palestinian UN mission announces application for full membership

Spain will recognize Palestinian statehood by July, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told journalists during a Middle East tour, according to several reports published on Tuesday in Spanish media.

State news agency EFE and newspapers El Pais and La Vanguardia cited Sanchez as making the informal remarks to the traveling press corps late on Monday in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on the first day of visits to Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

According to the reports, Sanchez said he expected events to unfold in the conflict ahead of the European Parliament elections in early June and highlighted ongoing debates at the United Nations.

He expected Spain to extend recognition to the Palestinians by July, he said, adding that he believed there would soon be a “critical mass” within the European Union to push several member states to adopt the same position, according to EFE.

Sanchez’s statement comes as Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian Authority’s envoy to the UN, told Reuters Monday that the PA planned to apply for full UN membership at the body’s Security Council, where the United States, Israel’s staunch ally, has veto power. A 2011 PA application for full membership was still pending because the 15-member council never made a formal decision, Mansour told Reuters.

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