French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that France is likely to formally recognize a Palestinian state in the near future, potentially as early as June during a joint French-Saudi conference scheduled to take place in New York.
“We must move toward recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron, who this week visited Egypt, told France 5 television.
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French President Emmanel Macron greets Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
(Photo: Reuters)
“Our aim is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia in June, where we could finalize this movement of mutual recognition (of a Palestinian state) by several parties,” he added. “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 recognize Israel in turn, which many of them do not do.”
The French president also said that 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.
Macron has long expressed support for a two-state solution. In 2017, he stated that France would continue working with the United Nations toward a resolution that includes both Israel and the Palestinians living side by side within internationally recognized borders. He also said at the time that “Jerusalem should be the capital of both states.”
