Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

No ‘unilateral recognition’ of Palestinian state, Rubio tells French counterpart

Such recognition “would reward Hamas for Oct. 7 and hinder efforts to bring all hostages home,” the U.S. State Department said.

Marco Rubio, Jean-Noël Barrot
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2025. Credit: Freddie Everett/U.S. State Department.

Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state and national security advisor, told Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, that Washington is strongly opposed to “any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” according to Tommy Pigott, the principal U.S. State Department deputy spokesman.

Recognizing a Palestinian state, which France plans to do, “would reward Hamas for Oct. 7 and hinder efforts to bring all hostages home,” Rubio told Barrot, per the U.S. readout of the Sept. 2 call.

The U.S. and French officials also talked about Russia and Ukraine, Iran, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pigott said.

The president’s call for a national Shabbat “celebrates our religion and it refocuses on our job to become a light unto the nations,” Rabbi Steven Burg of Aish told JNS.
Moments after Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, of the Hague Group, made the admission, Andrew Gilmour, a former senior U.N. official, warned her that “there are 108 people on this call, so just assume it’s not confidential.”
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, destroyed property and clashed with security guards at the Israeli defense firm’s facility near Bristol, England.
“Doris Fisher leaves behind a legacy of deep commitment to her family and our city,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said.
The Israeli consul general in New York told JNS that this year was the first time the Jewish state held an Independence Day celebration in New York City under a mayor who doesn’t recognize it.
The Jewish governor of Illinois, widely thought to be a candidate for president, accused the Israeli prime minister of making it “near-impossible” to obtain peace.