FRANCE COULD RECOGNISE PALESTINIAN STATE IN JUNE, SAYS MACRON

ISTANBUL, April 10 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- France could recognise the State of Palestine “in June” during an international conference co-chaired with Saudi Arabia, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.

“We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron said in an interview broadcast on France 5, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

He said the planned conference, expected to take place in New York, aims to advance the implementation of the two-state solution and could mark a turning point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Our goal is to chair this conference (on Palestine) with Saudi Arabia sometime in June, where we could finalise this movement of mutual recognition by several parties,” he added.

Macron’s remarks come amid mounting international calls for a political resolution to the conflict in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 50,000 people since October 2023, as well as the wider Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

In February 2024, Macron said that recognising a Palestinian state is “not a taboo for France,” describing the move as both a moral and political necessity.

“We owe it to the Palestinians, whose aspirations have been trampled on for too long. We owe it to the Israelis who experienced the greatest anti-Semitic massacre of our century. We owe it to a region that yearns to escape the promoters of chaos and the sowers of revenge,” he said at the time.

At present, 147 of the 193 United Nations (UN) member states recognise the State of Palestine.

In May last year, Spain, Ireland, and Norway joined the list, bringing the number of European Union (EU) countries extending recognition to 10.

Others include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, and Romania.

Several other European nations -- particularly in Eastern Europe such as Ukraine, Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, and Belarus, have also recognised Palestinian statehood.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU