ISTANBUL

Australia is a “sovereign nation,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Monday when asked whether the US would retaliate if Canberra recognized a Palestinian state.

"We are a sovereign nation. Australia makes our decisions as a sovereign nation," Albanese told reporters in Canberra, according to ABC News.

Albanese was fielding questions a day after thousands of Australians held mass pro-Palestine rally in Sydney.

The Sunday march was “peaceful and was an opportunity for people to express their concerns about what is happening in Gaza,” said Albanese, who is reportedly preparing the ground for a "historic" shift on Palestine which “is only a matter of when and how.”

Canberra does not recognize Palestine, but its allies including France, Canada and the UK have in recent weeks pledged to formally grant diplomatic recognition to an independent state of Palestine at the upcoming UN General Assembly in September.

The move by Paris and Ottawa have triggered angry reactions from Washington.

Reports on Monday also suggested that Albanese, who has charged Tel Aviv with breaching international law as well as “stealing” innocent lives in Gaza, was mulling a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The trigger for the phone call is said to be the "March for Humanity" across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday, when people pressed for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and pressure within the ruling Labour Party towards recognizing a Palestinian state. While police said 90,000 people attended, the group behind the demonstration, Palestine Action Group Sydney, said there were 300,000 people, including Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Human rights defenders have reminded the Australian premier of a pending arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

Albanese should be “discussing with Netanyahu his one-way trip to ICC to face war crimes & crimes against humanity charges,” said Rawan Arraf, a lawyer and executive director at the Australian Centre for International Justice.

Rawan was referring to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu over war crimes.

The warrant for Netanyahu, whose forces have killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023 and have destroyed the enclave, was issued last November and “he is still at large,” Arraf said. “The PM (Anthony Albanese) must not give legitimacy to an accused war criminal.”