The governments of the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Australia announced over the weekend that they are not planning on backing France’s initiative to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.
While London backs the move in principle, it “must be part of a wider plan, which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis,” Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, said in a video statement he posted to social media on Friday evening.
According to the British leader, this will “ensure that recognition is a tool of maximum impact, to improve the lives of those who are suffering, and that must always be our ultimate goal.”
The statement came after Starmer’s senior Cabinet ministers and more than a third of all Parliament members urged him to move faster on the recognition following Paris’s announcement on Thursday, The Guardian reported.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the German government told Reuters on Friday that Berlin was not planning to recognize a Palestinian state “in the short term,” and that the priority was to make “long-overdue progress” toward its preferred two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
The safety and security of the Jewish state is “of paramount importance” to Germany, the spokesperson emphasized.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told local media that while she was “very much in favor of the State of Palestine,” French President Emmanuel Macron’s declaration would fail to solve the conflict.
“I am not in favor of recognizing it prior to establishing it,” she told the La Repubblica daily. “If something that doesn’t exist is recognized on paper, the problem could appear to be solved when it isn’t.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Canberra would not recognize Palestinian statehood “as a gesture,” but rather “as a way forward if the circumstances are met.”
“You need to recognize a Palestinian state as part of moving forward. How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian state operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel?” he told Australia’s ABC.
“Is the time right now? Are we about to imminently do that? No, we are not ... but we will engage constructively,” the Australian leader stated.
Macron announced on Thursday that “consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Paris intends to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations.
“I will make this solemn announcement before the U.N. General Assembly this coming September,” he stated. “The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision “to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the Oct. 7 [2023] massacre” by Hamas terrorists.
“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became,” Netanyahu stated. “A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel—not to live in peace beside it. Let’s be clear: the Palestinians do not seek a state alongside Israel. They seek a state instead of Israel.”
U.S. President Donald Trump also dismissed Macron’s plan, telling reporters in Washington on Friday that “what he says doesn’t matter.”
“He’s a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn’t carry weight,” Trump said of the French president. “Look, he’s a different kind of a guy. He’s okay. He’s a team player, pretty much. But here’s the good news: What he says doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything.”
