“We have to move towards awareness, and we will do so in the next few months,” says the French president.
President Emmanuel Macron says France will recognize the Palestinian state “in the coming months.”
Macron told France5 Television Wednesday that his country aimed to finalise its move at the UN Conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia in June.
“We have to move towards awareness, and we will do so in the next few months,” Macron said.
“I’m not doing it to please anyone, because at some point it’s right,” he said.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Basen Agavekia Shahin told news agency AFP that France’s perception is “a step in the right direction in line with protecting the Palestinians and the two province’s solutions.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saa said that “unilateral perception” of the Palestinian state would be “help Hamas backing.”
“The “unilateral perception” of the fictional Palestinian state of reality as we all know will be a prize for Hamas’ fear and boost,” he wrote in X.
“This type of action will not bring peace, security or stability in our region closer, but it’s the opposite. They will only push them further away,” he said.
Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 146 of the 193 UN members, with Armenia, Slovenia, Ireland, Norway, Spain, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados joining the ranks last year.
However, despite growing international support for Palestinian states, several major Western countries, such as the US, Australia, the UK and Germany, have withheld recognition.
Macron said it allowed some countries in the Middle East to recognize Israeli states in turn and foreshadowed “collective dynamics.”
Countries that do not recognize Israel include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Macron said that recognition of Palestine as a nation would allow France to “be clarified in the fight against those who deny Israel’s right to exist.”
France has long defended two state solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has continued its policy after the attack by Palestinian armed group Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023.
However, formal perceptions of the Palestinian state by Paris could mark a major policy switch and become hostile to Israel.
On a recent trip to Egypt, Macron held consultations with President Abdel Fatta El-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan, revealing that Gaza and Israel are strongly opposed to evacuation or annexation of the occupied West Bank.
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