French President Emmanuel Macron said that its move to recognize the Palestinian State will not include the opening of an embassy in Palestine until Hamas frees all Israeli hostages, according to AFP.
“It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine,” Macron said.
In an interview with CBS News, Macron dismissed Israel’s plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza, noting that Gaza would be part of the future Palestinian State.
“But if the precondition of such a plan is to push them out, this is just a craziness,” Macron said on “Face the Nation.”
On Sunday, Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal formally recognized the Palestinian State in a move that angered Israel.
Meanwhile, France will follow suit with other countries on Monday at the United Nations.
Israel has condemned the Western move and described it as a “huge reward to terrorism.”
Moreover, two Israeli far-right ministers on Sunday urged the annexation of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said that the recognition of the Palestinian State requires immediate countermeasures such as the “swift application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria and the complete dismantling of the Palestinian Authority.”
In the same context, Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, noted that the only response to Western’s recognition of Palestinian State is “sovereignty over the historic homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samaria, and permanently removing the folly of a Palestinian state from the agenda.”
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