A U.N. conference set for next week to explore the creation of a Palestinian state has been postponed because of the fighting between Israel and Iran, President Emmanuel Macron of France says.
For Mr. Macron, the meeting’s co-chairman alongside Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, the postponement delays a delicate decision on French recognition of a Palestinian state. In a move that infuriated Israel, the French president had indicated that he would formally do so at the conference.
Speaking on Friday evening, Mr. Macron said the postponement would be brief with a new date to be set in the coming days. It was needed because leaders in the region, including Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, would be unable to travel because of the fighting.
“For logistical, physical, security and political reasons, they could not get to New York,” Mr. Macron said. But he added that the movement toward a two-state outcome symbolized by the conference was “unstoppable.”
That view is not shared by the United States or Israel, both of which had indicated that they would not attend the conference. The United States, in a cable a few days ago that was first reported by Reuters, urged countries to shun the talks, which it said would “coerce Israel during a war, thereby supporting its enemies.”
France, like a growing number of European states, including many that have previously supported Israel, has taken the view that the most right-wing government in Israel’s history is leading the country down a destructive blind alley at devastating cost in Palestinian lives. This conviction has driven France to seek a political framework for the aftermath of the war in Gaza that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has persistently declined to outline.
“Whatever the circumstances, I have stated my determination to recognize a Palestinian state,” Mr. Macron said on Friday. “That determination is whole, and it is a sovereign decision.”
Among his many utterances on the subject, this was perhaps his most forthright, possibly reinforced by disquiet or irritation over the Israeli attack on Iran. Mr. Macron said that Iran’s uranium enrichment program “without any civilian justification” gave Israel legitimate cause to defend itself, but that France did not support Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to bomb Iran.
Turning to Gaza, Mr. Macron suggested that the decisions made by Mr. Netanyahu were bad for Israel’s security.
“When he leads a massive ground operation that kills so many civilians in Gaza, we consider that this is a betrayal of the history and identity of Israel and dangerous for the security of Israel today and tomorrow,” the French president said.
Similar statements by Mr. Macron in the run-up to the now delayed conference have angered Israel, which has accused him of leading “a crusade against the Jewish state.” Israel has also said that any decision to recognize a Palestinian state in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel would reward terrorism.
Tensions between France and Israel are running high, but Mr. Macron did speak to Mr. Netanyahu on Saturday.
Mr. Macron said he had told him that the Israeli strikes on Iran had created “a new era of war in the region” and should lead Israel to accept a cease-fire in Gaza, leading to the release of the Israeli hostages there and “political discussions.”
Roger Cohen is the Paris Bureau chief for The Times, covering France and beyond. He has reported on wars in Lebanon, Bosnia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Gaza, in more than four decades as a journalist. At The Times, he has been a correspondent, foreign editor and columnist.
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