Earlier this month Estonia voted in favor of a United Nations resolution that urges Israel to end the occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Speaking to ETV politics show "Esimene stuudio" Thursday evening, the minister said: "At my request, we thoroughly reviewed the line that the Republic of Estonia has been pursuing in terms of foreign policy, at today's cabinet meeting."

"We have not changed course whatsoever," he continued.

"Certainly the options are becoming increasingly complicated. And now when we talk specifically about the latest resolution, the issue was not about taking sides, be it with Israel, Palestine; or with Hamas or Hezbollah, which are terrorist organizations," Tsahkna continued.

"Only this specific resolution was related to an evaluation of the International Court of Justice's ruling. The ICJ and the International Criminal Court are for us existential organizations for us, so we had no other option. What are we stating very clearly? Hamas and Hezbollah – terrorist organizations. Israel has the right to defend itself under international law, and we support that, very clearly" Tsahkna said.

"So, we have not changed our policy. And I say this to the viewers calmly, regardless of what some Estonian so-called experts say, that our relations with the U.S. are very good. Our relations with our allies are very good. And we are respected in this line because we pursue a very clear policy, one which is based on international law," Tsahkna went on.

The minister also stressed that the government is not ready to recognize Palestine as a state, nor is it preparing to do so. "That is a very long way off, and those are fully different discussions," he added.

In general, Estonia has either voted with the EU on UNGA resolutions on Palestine, or if the EU27 is split, as it was on last month's vote, then with the U.S., or has abstained.

But last month, Estonia voted differently from the U.S., the latter voting against the resolution.

This led politicians and the media to question whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had changed its previous policy towards the Middle East, which it denied.

Since then, the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated further still, with Iran, flush with weapon sales to Russia, earlier this week firing nearly 200 missiles at Israel at a time when the latter has made a ground incursion into southern Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah are based.

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