French President Emmanuel Macron says he is ready to recognize a Palestinian state – but only following reforms to the Palestinian Authority.
Macron spoke with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a call on Wednesday and offered the “prospect of recognition” if the Palestinian Authority “implements necessary reforms,” according to the Elysee Palace.
Macron also highlighted to Abbas France’s commitment to building a “common vision” and “security guarantees” for Palestinians and Israelis.
The French leader’s comments come after Ireland, Norway, and Spain each formally recognized a Palestinian state.
Macron also spoke about recognition on Tuesday, saying that “there’s no taboo for France,” and that he was “totally ready to recognize a Palestinian State.”
“I consider that this recognition must come at a useful time, at a time when it is part of a process in which the states of the region and Israel are engaged and which allows, on the basis of a reform of the Palestinian Authority to produce a useful result. I will not make an emotional recognition,” Macron said Tuesday.
Some background: The PA, which is dominated by the Fatah political party, held administrative control over Gaza until 2007, after Hamas won the 2006 legislative elections in the occupied territories and expelled it from the strip. Since then, Hamas has ruled Gaza, and the PA governs parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
It was set up in the mid-1990s as an interim government pending Palestinian independence after the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Oslo Accords with Israel. It is headquartered in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah and exercises nominal self-rule in parts of the territory. But the PA is very unpopular among Palestinians, who see it as unable to provide security in the face of regular Israeli incursions in the West Bank.
Israel has rejected the prospect of the PA returning to Gaza after the war, and has dismissed the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in the territories. The US, however, favors a reformed PA being in control of both the West Bank and Gaza as part of a future independent state.
