France is set to recognize a Palestinian state in the coming months, French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday.
“We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” he declared in an interview with the France 5 channel.
“Our aim is to chair this conference with Saudi Arabia in June, where we could finalize this movement of mutual recognition by several parties,” he said, referencing plans for a global summit on the issue in New York.
“I won’t do it for unity or in order to please someone. I’ll do it because I think that at some point it would be fair. And also because I want to take part in a collective dynamic—one that allows everyone who defends Palestine to also recognize Israel,” added Macron.
Announcing the initiative with Riyadh in December, the French leader said his government would recognize a Palestinian state “at the right moment” and “when it triggers reciprocal movements of recognition.
“We want to involve several other partners and allies—both European and non-European—who are ready to move in this direction, but who are waiting for France,” Macron explained at the time.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem did not immediately respond on Wednesday night to a request for comment.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed recognition of “Palestine,” a state which does not exist according to international law.
“There was a Palestinian state. It was called Gaza,” Netanyahu said in a Feb. 6 interview with Channel 14. “Look what we received. The biggest massacre since the Holocaust. To establish a Palestinian state after October 7 is a huge prize, not only for Hamas [but also] for Iran.”
An Arab opinion poll published last year showed that nearly two-thirds of Palestinians in Gaza, Judea and Samaria prefer Hamas to be part of, or even lead, a government that would control the Strip after the war.
Some 71% of Israelis oppose establishing a Palestinian state that would include Judea and Samaria, according to a survey published on Jan. 29. Nearly 70% want to extend Israeli sovereignty over the area.
