Malta told a high-level U.N. meeting that it will formally recognize the state of Palestine in September, joining France and the United Kingdom in stepping up pressure to end the nearly 80-year Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Vincent Fean, a former British consul general to Jerusalem, said recognition of Palestine as a state would result in the government having to review its relations with Israel. This, he said, could result in Britain banning products from Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.