French Foreign Minister Stephane Ségornet (French)
French Foreign Minister Stephane Ségornet announced on Saturday that "the Palestinians have the right to sovereignty and to establish a state," after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his opposition to "Palestinian sovereignty" in the Gaza Strip.
Ségournet said - on the X platform - that "France will remain faithful to its commitment in order to achieve this goal."
The French minister's position comes after Netanyahu's statements in which he opposed the idea of Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza and stressed that Israel must maintain "control over the security of the Palestinian territories."
Netanyahu and members of his government announced on Saturday their rejection of the establishment of a Palestinian state, in a move contrary to Washington’s position calling for pursuing this option after the end of the war on Gaza.
Netanyahu said that Israel will not give up its full security control over the lands west of Jordan (the West Bank).
He added that abandoning those (occupied Palestinian) lands contradicts the Palestinian state.
The Israeli Prime Minister said that he opposes the establishment of any Palestinian state that does not guarantee the security of Israel, as he put it.
The Israeli Prime Minister's Office denied what CNN reported about Netanyahu's commitment to the Palestinian state - during a phone call that took place on Friday with US President Joe Biden - stressing that Netanyahu repeated to Biden his firm position regarding the Palestinian state.
The United States and Europe support the two-state solution, which is opposed by the Israeli government, which continues a bloody war on the Gaza Strip for the 107th day in a row after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack on towns and cities around the Gaza Strip on October 7th.
Source: Al Jazeera + French