PPARIS: France on Wednesday said recognising a Palestinian state was not “taboo”, but Paris considers that now is not the right moment for it to do so.
The comments came after Norway, Ireland and Spain announced they will recognise a Palestinian state from May 28, sparking delight from Palestinian leaders and fury from Israel.
“Our position is clear: the recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne wrote in a statement to AFP.
“This decision must be useful, that is to say allow a decisive step forward on the political level,” he added.
“France does not consider that the conditions have been present to date for this decision to have a real impact in this process”, he said.
For decades, the formal recognition of a Palestinian state has been seen as the endgame of a peace process between Palestinians and their Israeli neighbours.
The United States and most Western European nations have said they are willing to one day recognise Palestinian statehood, but not before agreement is reached on thorny issues like final borders and the status of Jerusalem.
But after Hamas’s October 7 attacks and Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, diplomats are reconsidering once-contentious ideas.