U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revealed on Friday that talks to secure a hostages-for-ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas broke down when President Emmanuel Macron announced France would recognize a Palestinian state.
“Talks with Hamas fell apart on the day Macron made the unilateral decision that he’s going to recognize the Palestinian state. And then you have other people come forward, other countries say, ‘Well, if there’s not a ceasefire by September, we’re [also] going to recognize a Palestinian state,’” Rubio said.
He noted that as a consequence, Hamas concluded, “let’s not do a ceasefire because we can be rewarded. We can claim it as a victory.
“So those messages [about statehood] ... actually have made it harder to get peace and harder to achieve a deal with Hamas,” Rubio said.
"Talks with Hamas fell apart on the day Macron made the unilateral decision that he’s going to recognize the Palestinian state ... So those messages, while largely symbolic in their minds, actually have made it harder to get peace and harder to achieve a deal with Hamas. " —… pic.twitter.com/Xt74bu7umF
— Department of State (@StateDept) August 8, 2025
Macron announced on July 24 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 said. “The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision “to recognize a Palestinian state next to Tel Aviv in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre” by Hamas terrorists.
“Such a move rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became,” Netanyahu said. “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.”
Days later, Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, said that London also intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September, “unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza,” agrees to a ceasefire and commits to “a long-term sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.”
