Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, in remarks issued amid the postponement of a conference intended to advance Palestinian statehood, said the global body needs to have its eye on Tehran.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that a two-state solution conference, organized by Paris and Riyadh and scheduled for this week in New York City, would be held off until an unannounced date, and be held “as soon as possible.”
Macron cited “logistical and security reasons,” with the announcement coming after Friday morning’s air raids by Israel against Iranian military and nuclear targets.
“The U.N.’s only focus right now should be on stopping the Islamic Republic of Iran from becoming a destructive nuclear-armed state,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the world body, told JNS this weekend.
“The regime has already caused regional chaos through its network of terror proxies and for its clear involvement in the Oct. 7 massacre. A nuclear Iran poses an existential threat to Israel and a threat to the entire world,” Danon added. “We will not allow the regime to get there—and we expect the U.N. to act accordingly, as well.”
Macron said on June 5 that conference participants would take steps “toward recognizing Palestine,” though he laid out no specifics. On Friday, he stated, “This delay does not call into question our determination to move forward with the implementation of the two-state solution, whatever the circumstances.”
France’s relationship with Israel has suffered in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel and Jerusalem’s subsequent military response, with Macron and other officials heavily critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war. Israeli officials have said Macron has let rising antisemitism go unchecked.
A recent report—“Frères musulmans et islamisme politique en France”—commissioned by Paris’s interior ministry on the impact of the Muslim Brotherhood on French society recommended that France endorse a Palestinian state in order to “appease” the country’s Muslim population, though ministry officials insisted to the press that the report’s recommendation did not reflect their current position.
Macron’s efforts to push European nations to jointly recognize a Palestinian state have fallen flat.
The United States has blasted the effort, and sent out a démarche on June 10 intended to discourage governments from attending the two-state solution conference, threatening diplomatic consequences for any countries taking “anti-Israel actions” following the event.
JNS diplomatic sources said the Trump administration would steer clear of the conference altogether.
The Israeli mission to the United Nations also told JNS it would not participate.
