United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated Washington “strongly rejects” French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state, because the administration of President Donald Trump introduced it will not attend an upcoming United Nations convention looking for a two-state resolution for Palestinians.
Posting on X late on Thursday, Rubio criticised Macron’s “reckless resolution”, which he stated “solely serves Hamas propaganda and units again peace”.
Earlier, Macron had stated he would formalise France’s resolution to formally recognise a Palestinian state on the UN’s Common Meeting in September.
“In line with its historic dedication to a simply and lasting peace within the Center East, I’ve determined that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron wrote on X.
At the very least 142 nations out of the 193 members of the UN presently recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state. However a number of highly effective Western nations – together with the US, the UK and Germany – have refused to take action.
Fellow European Union members Norway, Eire and Spain indicated in May that they’d begun the method to recognise a Palestinian state.
However Macron’s resolution would make France – one in all Israel’s closest allies and a G7 member – the most important and arguably most influential nation in Europe to make the transfer.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the choice, saying such a transfer “rewards terror and dangers creating one other Iranian proxy”.
“A Palestinian state in these circumstances could be a launch pad to annihilate Israel – to not reside in peace beside it,” he stated in a submit on X.
“Let’s be clear: the Palestinians don’t search a state alongside Israel; they search a state as an alternative of Israel,” Netanyahu added.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz additionally described the transfer as “a shame and a give up to terrorism”. He added that Israel wouldn’t permit the institution of a “Palestinian entity that will hurt our safety, endanger our existence”.
Whereas supporting a two-state resolution stays the long-held official stance of the US, President Donald Trump has himself expressed doubts about its viability. Since returning to the White Home in January, Trump instructed the US may “take over” Gaza, displace the territory’s greater than two million Palestinian inhabitants, and remodel it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Trump’s plan has been condemned by rights teams, Arab states, Palestinians and the UN as tantamount to “ethnic cleaning”.
In June, Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, additionally stated he didn’t suppose an impartial Palestinian state remained a US international coverage objective.
His feedback prompted Division of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce to say Huckabee “speaks for himself” and policy-making is a matter for Trump and the White Home.
On Thursday, State Division deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott stated the US is not going to attend an upcoming convention set to be held on the UN on the two-state resolution. The convention – co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, and scheduled to happen between July 28-30 – seeks to chart a roadmap to finish the decades-long battle and recognise a Palestinian state.
Chatting with reporters, Pigott stated there was “nothing additional” to say concerning the situation aside from that Washington “is not going to be in attendance”.
There may be mounting stress on Israel to finish its lethal struggle on Gaza, waged within the wake of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, assaults on southern Israel, which noticed some 1,139 folks killed and greater than 200 captives taken to the Palestinian enclave.
Israel’s subsequent 21-month assault on Gaza has resulted in virtually 60,000 Palestinians being killed, with an extra 144,000 wounded.
Months-long ceasefire negotiations – brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar – have thus far didn’t yield a breakthrough.
On Monday, 28 nations – together with the UK, Japan and quite a few European nations – issued a joint statement telling Israel the struggle on Gaza “should finish now”.
The joint assertion additionally condemned “the drip feeding of support and the inhumane killing of civilians, together with youngsters, looking for to fulfill their most elementary wants of water and meals”.