Minister Varsen Aghabekian met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) and discussed the situation in the Middle East and cooperation between Estonia and Palestine.

Estonia's official foreign policy is to back a two-state solution, and it does not recognize Palestinian statehood. However, it has donated €330,000 in humanitarian aid over the past two years and backed a UN proposal to give Palestine full membership rights. 

"The visit is surprising. Estonia's foreign policy has been confusing. We have voted against Israel in the UN, but otherwise have continued to support Israel," said Poopuu, director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub at Tallinn University (TLÜ).

The majority of pundits and politicians dominating Estonia's news cycle are staunch and vocal supporters of Israel, especially since Hamas – the sole ruler in the Gaza Strip since 2007 – launched its October 7, 2023 attacks.

Asked if the meeting is likely to be seen as controversial, Poopuu said it probably will.

"But it should not be. The facts are clear, we are witnessing a genocide and we have a grave humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Estonia does not have the luxury to remain silent or inactive," she told ERR News.

The researcher was not optimistic that the meeting would change Estonia's foreign policy, however.

"It probably will not, but it should. In fact, Estonia's media and MFA should seriously ask themselves: Why Estonia stays silent on Israel's actions in Gaza?" she said, highlighting that similar questions had been posed in the Lithuanian media. "[This is] something that we need to ask as well."

Poopuu said Israel is undermining the rules-based international order, and there is an "overwhelming" consensus among leading international human rights organisations and genocide scholars that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

"This visit itself does not translate into much if the Estonian state and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not act decisively," Poopuu continued.

"Estonia has an obligation to do everything to put a stop to the gravest war crimes that Israel is committing at the moment. There is no controversy: Estonia either believes that international law matters or it does not, we cannot pick and choose when it matters. It does not work like this."

She added that "the time of condemnation is over" and urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to follow the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention, and recent rulings on Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, plus arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant.

"Israel is annihilating and starving the whole population. We need to be alarmed and driven to action. There is no time to lose to ask for a permanent ceasefire, freeing of all hostages and following the decisions of ICJ and ICC. Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land and every state has an obligation to do everything to end the occupation," Poopuu said.

On Tuesday, Tsahkna condemned the expansion of settlements created in breach of international law on the West Bank, and backed EU sanctions against those responsible. He stressed that Estonia believes the two-state solution is necessary to achieve lasting peace in the Middle East.

The conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is one of the longest-running and most violent disputes in the world. Its origins go back more than a century, the BBC writes.

The latest round of conflict began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters launched an assault from Gaza, killing about 1,200 people in Israel and taking more than 250 people hostage.

This triggered a massive Israeli military offensive in Gaza. More than 46,700 people have been killed in the offensive so far; the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The "two-state solution" is an internationally backed formula for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It proposes an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It would exist alongside Israel.

Israel rejects a two-state solution. While the Palestinian Authority backs a two-state solution, Hamas does not, as it is opposed to the existence of Israel.

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