France's Macron hails US changing its position on Gaza conflict

By Nur Asena Erturk

The French president on Friday praised the US change of position on Gaza by supporting a cease-fire, including by sponsoring a UN Security Council resolution.

“It is important to note that the US changed its position and clearly expressed its will to back a cease-fire, which is a good thing for us and the progress of our project,” Emmanuel Macron told a news conference following an EU Council meeting in Brussels.

“We have a resolution project that we will submit again. We’ll work with multiple partners,” he also said.

Russia and China earlier vetoed the latest attempt to pass a cease-fire resolution at the UN Security Council, led by the US, which tried to link a cease-fire in Gaza to the release of hostages by Hamas and called for support for diplomacy. Hamas denounced the proposed resolution for its attempt at linkage.

The French leader also voiced hope that working with other countries in the Middle East could help convince Russia and China.

He also commended the EU urging an "immediate humanitarian pause" in Gaza as well as access to sufficient humanitarian in the face of the imminent risk of famine, which he called “unjustifiable.”

“We have collectively exhorted Israeli authorities to not launch a land operation in Rafah, which would only aggravate the humanitarian situation that is already disastrous as over a million Palestinians went there,” Macron added, referring to a city in southern Gaza.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Nearly 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and more than 74,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel also stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

- Ukraine war

Macron also commented on the war in Ukraine, now into its third year, saying that European countries vowed to support Ukraine not only as long as needed but also as much as needed.

“This means that we are ready to react to any action by the Russian aggressor, which is a real change of approach,” he added.

The question now is to find more radical and innovative solutions if it becomes necessary to go further and if things deteriorate, Macron added.

He vowed that particularly Germany and France would continue working in that direction.

Macron also criticized Russian officials for “disgrace” and “nervousness” in their comments on his Feb. 26 remarks about possibly sending troops to Ukraine.

“We wil kill all the French soldiers who come to Ukrainian soil. All of them,” Pyotr Tolstoy, a deputy head of the Russian State Duma, told French broadcaster BFMTV on Thursday, following Macron's remarks last month on not ruling out any options to support Ukraine, including sending troops.