The United Kingdom’s impending recognition of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will have “no impact whatsoever” in bringing a lasting two-state solution to the centuries-old conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

Rubio, who is currently in Israel, dismissed the significance of multiple European countries’ decision to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

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“These things that countries are doing at the United Nations … are largely symbolic. They have really no impact whatsoever in bringing us any closer to a Palestinian state,” the top U.S. diplomat said on Monday during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rubio also said that the French, British, Australian, Belgian, and Canadian decisions to support Palestinian statehood had made it harder for negotiators to end the Israel-Hamas conflict. Many of these countries have also stipulated that they don’t want to see Hamas remain as the governing body of Gaza after the conclusion of the war, though the question of who will govern the enclave and oversee its reconstruction remains a hurdle that even the mediators have yet to determine.

“The only impact it actually has is it makes Hamas feel more emboldened,” he said.

President Donald Trump is expected to travel to the U.K. for the second time in his second term this week. Rubio will join him there. Trump has, at times, been at odds with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer over Israel’s conduct in the war, including about Palestinian statehood.

Like Rubio’s comments on Monday, Trump said in July, “You could make a case that you’re rewarding Hamas if you [recognize Palestinian statehood]. I don’t think they should be rewarded. I’m not in that camp.”

Many Western world leaders have denounced Israel’s planned ground operations in Gaza City, one of the last areas of the strip that the Israel Defense Forces don’t control, though it’s also one of the most densely populated areas of the besieged enclave.

Trump has stood by Netanyahu and supported Israel as it continues to prosecute its wars in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that ignited conflicts throughout the region.

However, Trump publicly expressed his frustration with Israel over a strike its military conducted in Qatar. Qatar, a U.S. ally, had also allowed senior Hamas officials, the intended targets of last week’s strikes, to reside in the country.

TRUMP AND RUBIO AIM TO SMOOTH THINGS OVER WITH QATAR AFTER ISRAELI STRIKE

Netanyahu maintained on Monday that the IDF is “still getting the final reports” on the mission but denied it “failed,” even as there’s speculation that it did not kill its intended targets. Hamas acknowledged that five members were killed but claimed its senior leadership survived.

Trump said last week that he had officials try to stop the strike from occurring after being informed it was about to take place, but it was too late. The president spoke with Israeli and Qatari leaders after the strike; he and Rubio met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani last Friday.