"I think we have no reason to recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent state at the moment. There is no clarity about its national territory or any other aspects," Scholz said at a joint press briefing with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.
What is needed is a "negotiated solution between Israel and the Palestinians that would amount to a two-state solution," the German leader added.
"It is about a Palestinian administration that would control both the West bank and the Gaza Strip, but we are still far from that. All we need to do now is achieve a lasting ceasefire. It is also a matter of getting all parties involved to commit to the two-state solution," Scholz also said, adding that he believed a token recognition of Palestine would lead nowhere.
Earlier this week, the Palestinian ambassador to Austria and permanent observer to the United Nations in Vienna, Salah Abdel Shafi, told Sputnik that each new recognition of Palestine as a state would bring it one step closer to the implementation of the two-state solution.
On Wednesday, Norway and Spain said they would formally recognize Palestine as a state on May 28. Later in the day, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris announced his country's recognition of Palestine. Until Wednesday, Palestine was recognized by nine EU member states. Eight countries — Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania and Slovakia — recognized it in 1988 before joining the European Union, and Sweden in 2014.