France could recognise Palestinian state ‘in June', says Emmanuel Macron – Middle East crisis live
Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature France could recognise Palestinian state 'in June': Macron Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
France plans to recognise a Palestinian state within months and could make the move at a UN conference in New York in June on settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict, president Emmanuel Macron said in an interview broadcast on Wednesday.
'We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,' Macron, who this week visited Egypt, told France 5 television, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
'Our aim is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia in June, where we could finalise this movement of mutual recognition by several parties,' he added.
He said:
I will do it because I believe that at some point it will be right and because I also want to participate in a collective dynamic, which must also allow all those who defend Palestine to recognise Israel in turn, which many of them do not do.'
Such recognition would allow France 'to be clear in our fight against those who deny Israel's right to exist – which is the case with Iran – and to commit ourselves to collective security in the region,' he added.
France has long championed a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including after the 7 October 2023 attack by Palestinian militants Hamas on Israel.
But formal recognition by Paris of a Palestinian state would mark a major policy switch and risk antagonising Israel which insists such moves by foreign states are premature.
More on that story in a moment, but first here are some other Middle East related developments: At least 23 people have been killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a residential building in northern Gaza , as reports emerged that the Israeli military is preparing to seize the entire city of Rafah as part of a newly announced security corridor. Medics at al-Ahli hospital said that the bombing on Wednesday of a four-storey building in the Gaza City suburb of Shijaiyah had killed at least eight women and children, as rescue workers continued to search for survivors into the evening. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior Hamas militant.
The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas has submitted a legal filing saying it should be removed from the UK government's list of proscribed terrorist groups. Hamas is arguing that it is not a terrorist group but 'a Palestinian Islamic liberation and resistance movement whose goal is to liberate Palestine and confront the Zionist project'.
Saudi Arabia's top diplomat held talks in Washington on Wednesday, laying the groundwork for a visit by US President Donald Trump, which would be the first foreign trip of his second term. Foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan met US secretary of state Marco Rubio at the state department, and the two called on the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces to resume peace talks.
Suspected US airstrikes in Yemen overnight into Thursday killed at least three people, while the death toll in an earlier attack rose to 13 dead, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels said. The rebels meanwhile aired footage they said showed the debris left after shooting down yet another American MQ-9 Reaper drone. Share
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