‘Serves Hamas propaganda’: US blasts French recognition of ‘Palestinian state’ while Hamas & PA rejoice

The U.S. sharply condemned the announcement by France’s President Emmanuel Macron that he wants to recognize a Palestinian state in September, while several other countries, as well as Hamas, signaled their support.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country “strongly rejects” Macron’s plan.

“This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th,” he wrote on 𝕏.

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee ridiculed the plan, noting on 𝕏 that “Macron's unilateral ‘declaration’ of a ‘Palestinian’ state didn't say WHERE it would be. I can now exclusively disclose that France will offer the French Riviera & the new nation will be called ‘Franc-en-Stine’.”

The United States strongly rejects @EmmanuelMacron’s plan to recognize a Palestinian state at the @UN general assembly.

This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7th.

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 25, 2025

In another post, he wrote: “How clever! If Macron can just ‘declare’ the existence of a state perhaps the UK can ‘declare’ France a British colony!”

France has mulled a public recognition of a Palestinian state for several months. According to reports in June, a diplomatic cable showed the U.S. opposes any unilateral recognition, threatening consequences as such a move would directly contradict U.S. foreign policy interests.

The French AFP news agency said that 142 countries have now declared their recognition of a Palestinian state or intend to do so. Several countries, including Spain, Ireland and Norway, announced their recognition last year.

However, the U.S. and most major Western countries have not done so yet. Recognition by France, home to both the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in western Europe, as well as the E.U.’s only nuclear power and only permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, would have a substantially different weight.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, quickly praised Macron’s announcement.

“Together, we must protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two-state solution is the only solution,” the Socialist leader who has taken a vocally anti-Israeli position during the war wrote on 𝕏.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would call his colleagues in Germany and France to discuss a possible Gaza ceasefire, noting this would “put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state.”

The French declaration was met with praise by Hamas, as well as the Palestinian Authority (PA).

“Macron’s announcement is a positive step in the right direction toward justice for our oppressed Palestinian people and toward support for their right to establish their own state,” Hamas stated.

The decision “reflects the growing international conviction of the justice of the Palestinian cause and the failure of the occupation to distort the facts.”

“We call on all countries of the world – especially European nations and those that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine – to follow France’s lead,” the terror group said.

The PA’s new deputy president Hussein al-Sheikh said the move “reflects France’s commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state.”

Hala Abou-Hassira, the PA's ambassador to France, said in a television interview that this showed a France that remained “faithful to its history, faithful to its policies, and faithful to international law.”

Abou-Hassira said the message to Israel and the U.S. was clear: “One cannot continue to impose facts on the ground, facts that render a two-state solution impossible.”

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry also commended Macron’s announcement as “historic” and called on other countries to follow his example.

Amid withering criticism from Israel, Macron’s Jewish special adviser on Israeli-Palestinian affairs, Ofer Bronchtein defended the decision in a Hebrew-language interview with Israel’s Kan News radio station.

“Everyone for 40 years has been talking about the two-state solution,” said.

“It angers me that people say we encourage terror… Perhaps because there was no Palestinian state, October 7 happened.”

“Had there been Palestinian sovereignty in Gaza on October 7… October 7 wouldn’t have happened. Sovereignty is responsibility,” he argued.