World leaders will meet to discuss a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at UN headquarters in New York ahead of the annual General Assembly in September, following a conference that will be held this month, a French diplomatic source said Wednesday.
The coming July conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, was originally planned for mid-June but was postponed when Israel, on June 13, launched a campaign against Iran’s nuclear program, triggering a 12-day war.
Diplomatic sources had said last week that the conference was now set for July 28-29. The French source said the meeting would be at the ministerial level.
The meeting will seek to “advance the recognition of a Palestinian state for a certain number of states who have not yet recognized it, including France,” said the source, adding that it would also work “on normalization and Israel’s regional integration with Arab and Muslim countries.”
Heads of state and government will then meet in either Paris or New York before the UN General Assembly, which will be attended by world leaders on September 22, the source added.
France’s foreign ministry said Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot would attend the summit.
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron called for Britain and France to jointly recognize a Palestinian state, joining other European nations, including Spain and Norway, that did so last year.
Israel has rejected recognition of Palestinian statehood, saying doing so would serve as a reward for the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.
Before the June French-Saudi conference was postponed, Barrot said France would not recognize a Palestinian state alone, a possible reference to the eagerness of Paris to see any French recognition matched by Gulf Arab allies — notably Saudi Arabia — recognizing Israel.
US President Donald Trump, near the end of his first term, oversaw the “Abraham Accords,” under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco became the first Arab countries in decades to normalize relations with Israel.
His administration has recently hinted that other Muslim countries may soon join the pact. At the same time, it has discouraged governments around the world from attending the French-Saudi conference, according to a US diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.