France may recognize a Palestinian state in June, during a conference it will co-chair with Saudi Arabia at the United Nations in New York, President Emmanuel Macron said today.
According to the French head of state, this initiative could also lead to the recognition of Israel by several countries.
“We must move towards recognition [of the Palestinian state] and this is how we will move forward in the coming months,” declared the French president in an interview on France 5's “C'est à vous” program, following his return from Egypt on Tuesday and broadcast today.
“Our goal is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia sometime in June, where we can finalize the process of mutual recognition by several countries,” he added.
The conference aims to create a Palestinian state. Calls for a "two-state solution", with the Palestinians siding with Israel, have intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Nearly 150 countries recognize the Palestinian state. In May 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain advanced, followed by Slovenia in June.
The two-state solution, however, continues to be rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"I will do it (...) because I believe that at some point it will be the right thing to do and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must allow all those who defend Palestine to recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do," noted the French head of state.
For Macron, this step will also allow "to be clear in the fight against those who deny Israel's right to exist, as is the case with Iran."
In 2020, the Abraham Accords led to the recognition of Israel by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Saudi Arabia, which had also begun negotiations for rapprochement with Israel, has however suspended them since the start of the war in Gaza, making any recognition conditional on the creation of a Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority immediately welcomed Emmanuel Macron's announcement. Recognition by France "would be a step in the right direction, consistent with the defense of the rights of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution," Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The French president expressed his support for the Arab plan for Gaza in Cairo on Monday, firmly opposing the displacement of populations in the face of Donald Trump's ambitions.
The Arab initiative is intended to be a response to the American president's plan to take control of Palestinian territory and expel its inhabitants.
Prepared by Egypt, it aims to rebuild the Gaza Strip, destroyed by 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas, without displacing its 2.4 million inhabitants.
Faced with the "humanitarian blockade" in Gaza, where Israel resumed its military operations on March 18 after a two-month truce, Macron stressed that it is "a priority to urgently request a ceasefire of forty to fifty days", according to opinion pieces in the French newspapers La Croix and Libération.
In an attempt to convince Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a new truce and the release of aid, he also demanded the release of about ten hostages, "in accordance with discussions that the Egyptians are holding together with the Qataris and Hamas."
The French president also stated that "Hamas will not be eliminated by military means", and called for a negotiated exit of its main leaders from Gaza.
Asked about Donald Trump's plan to turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East", Emmanuel Macron insisted that the Gaza Strip "is not a real estate project".
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