Macron made his statements in a series of interviews with French media outlets after recognizing the State of Palestine at the UNGA and co-hosting a historic Two-State conference in New York on Monday.
“There is one person who can do something about it, and that is the US president,” Macron said on Tuesday in an interview with France’s BFM TV, speaking from New York.
“I see an American president who is mobilised, who says, ‘I want the Nobel Peace Prize’. The Nobel Peace Prize is only possible if you stop this conflict,” he said.
Macron argued that the US has more leverage than other powers because of its military support for Israel.
“We do not supply weapons that allow the war in Gaza to be waged. We do not supply equipment that allows war to be waged in Gaza. The United States of America does,” he said.
On Tuesday, during a 55-minute speech to the UNGA, Trump dismissed several European countries’ decision to recognise Palestinian statehood as a “reward for Hamas.”
France, Britain, Australia, Canada, Portugal, Malta, Monaco and Luxembourg had announced their recognitions during a two-state solution conference on Monday and in the run-up to the conference on Sunday.
Macron rejected claims that the recognition was merely “symbolic,” stressing that it was meant to trigger a political process capable of opening a path to peace.
In an exclusive interview with France 24 on Wednesday, Macron said, “France’s position has not changed — we have always supported the two-state solution."
He added that the recognition served two immediate goals: the release of captives held by Hamas, and a ceasefire in Gaza.
Macron argued that “total war does not allow [the release of hostages] and even puts them in danger.”
A ceasefire, he said, would “save lives in Gaza and allow humanitarian work to resume.”
"Recognition was also “the only way to isolate Hamas,” saying the step had already pushed the Palestinian Authority to “condemn the October 7 attacks, call for the demilitarisation of Hamas, and begin a process of internal reform," he added.
Turning to the West Bank, Macron, despite having disagreements with Trump on Palestinian statehood, said that he and US President Donald Trump now share the same position in opposing Israel’s annexation plans.
“What President Trump told me yesterday was that the Europeans and Americans have the same position,” he said.
The French president revealed that he had presented Trump with a three-page plan on the future of Palestine, based on the New York Declaration, which calls for Hamas to be excluded from governing Gaza and the West Bank.
Macron warned that an Israeli move to annex the West Bank would cross a “red line” for France, contradict the 2020 Abraham Accords signed under Trump’s first administration, and represent a dangerous escalation.
“I believe this is a red line for the United States, too. It’s up to them to say so,” he added.
He also responded to threats from Israel to retaliate against France for recognising Palestine, warning that closing the French consulate in Jerusalem would be “a grave mistake.”
On the Gaza war, Macron questioned the strategic purpose of Israel’s campaign.
“The Israeli army has restored its deterrent capability, which was weakened by the October 7 attacks. It has achieved remarkable military successes and decapitated Hamas. But Hamas is not disappearing, it has just as many fighters as at the start of the war,” he said.
"There is no other initiative that isolates Hamas as much as a two-state solution," added the French president.
“Total war kills civilians, it does not destroy Hamas. This is factual,” stressed Macron.
“The objective of some is not to fight Hamas but rather to undermine the possibility of a path to peace. Hamas is not in the West Bank.”
“Netanyahu’s first priority is not the release of hostages, otherwise he would not have launched the latest offensive on Gaza City, nor would he have struck negotiators in Qatar,” said the French leader,
Macron told France 24 he would continue to push for the US – “the one country with very concrete means to exert pressure” – to pressure Israel into changing course. Failing that, he said EU countries would have to press ahead with sanctions against Israel.
The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, which has been condemned for two years regionally and globally, has killed and wounded more than 220,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which has welcomed Western recognition of the State of Palestine, rejected US President Donald Trump's accusation that the Palestinian group was blocking efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.
"Hamas has never been an obstacle to reaching a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip... The US administration, the mediators and the entire world know that the war criminal Netanyahu is the sole party obstructing all attempts to reach an agreement," Hamas said in a statement.
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