Emmanuel Macron announced on Wednesday, April 9 that France could recognize a Palestinian State “in June” on the occasion of a conference that will coincide with Saudi Arabia in the United Nations in New York and that, according to him, it is also due to Israel’s recognition for several countries.
A step that Emmanuel Macron had already mentioned, declaring, for example, in February 2024 that “the recognition of a Palestinian State is not a taboo for France.” “We have to go to recognition (from the Palestinian state, editor’s note) and, therefore, in the coming months we will go,” said the French president in an interview in the program “Depends on you” in France 5 granted on your return from Egypt on Tuesday and broadcast on Wednesday.
“Our goal is, somewhere in June, with Saudi Arabia, preside over this conference where we could end the mutual recognition movement of many,” he added.
The conference aims to create a Palestinian state. The calls to a “solution to two states”, Palestinian together with that of Israel, have intensified since the beginning of the war in Gaza, caused by the attack against Hamas in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Almost 150 countries have recognized the Palestinian state
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Palestine, 149 countries recognize to date in the state of Palestine: this count includes the Vatican, which is not part of the UN Member States. In May 2024, Ireland, Norway and Spain launched, followed by Slovenia in June.
Most of the countries of Western Europe and North America, Australia, Japan and South Korea are absent from this list. Some have declared their intention to operate this recognition, without giving a specific calendar.
In February 2024, the British government, for example, said that its “commitment to a sovereign and viable Palestinian state” and its “intention to give it recognition.” But the United Kingdom will only do it “at the most conducive moment in the peace process,” he added.
Canada has a similar position, which tells itself “willing to recognize a Palestinian State at the most conducive time for lasting peace, even if it is not the last step towards the realization of the solution of two states.”
Israel is criticizing a “fictional Palestinian state”
Some countries are not favorable, Israel first. Reacting to the statements of Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, estimated at X that “a unilateral recognition of a fictional Palestinian state, for any country, in the reality that we all know, will be a reward for terrorism and an impulse for Hamas.”
In April 2024, the United States vetoed Palestine’s admission as a member state as the right to the UN. And in May, a spokesman for the American presidency said that former President Joe Biden opposed a “unilateral” recognition of the state of Palestine and that he estimated “that a Palestinian State must be created through direct negotiations between the parties.”
Source: BFM TV
