France will recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly session in September. This was announced on Thursday by French President Emmanuel Macron.
He published in social network X a copy of his letter to the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
The letter says that the decision, according to Macron, will help the peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict.
France would thus become the first major Western power to recognise not just the Palestinian right to statehood, but a de jure Palestinian state.
On the same day, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, effectively holding Israel responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe in the Strip. Starmer wrote that the UK would also recognise a Palestinian state, but only after a ceasefire was concluded in Gaza.
The independence of the State of Palestine is currently recognised by about 150 of the 193 UN member states. The US and Israel in particular refuse to recognise it now. According to UN resolutions, the territory of the state should consist of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, but Israel does not agree with such borders.
The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, is partly under the control of Hamas, a group recognised as a terrorist group in the US and the EU. Indirect talks on a truce and the release of hostages remaining in Hamas hands have so far failed. Israeli and U.S. representatives have left Qatar and are now studying Hamas’ latest proposals, Reuters reported. U.S. special envoy Steve Whitkoff said Hamas was “not acting in good faith” and said “alternatives on how to bring the hostages home and create a more stable environment for Gazans” would be considered. He did not give details.
Israel’s military operation continues in Gaza. Access to humanitarian aid is difficult in the Strip, and international organisations say there is a threat of famine.
The fighting has been going on since October 2023, when Hamas attacked southern Israel and took more than 250 people hostage. The Israeli operation, in turn, killed tens of thousands of people in the Strip. Over time, many Western countries began to increasingly criticise Israel over the operation.