France will help the Palestinian Authority draft a constitution for a future state, President Emmanuel Macron said on Nov 11 after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris.
A number of major Western nations including France
formally recognised a Palestinian state in September, a move driven by frustration with Israel over its devastating war in Gaza and a wish to promote a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
A US-brokered, Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in October, but Israel again rejected any prospect of Palestinian statehood.
Mr Macron said France and the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank, would set up a joint committee to work on drawing up a new Palestinian constitution.
“This committee will be responsible for working on all legal aspects: constitutional, institutional and organisational,” he told reporters.
“It will contribute to the work of developing a new constitution, a draft of which President Abbas has presented to me, and will aim to finalise all the conditions for such a State of Palestine,” Mr Macron said.
Hellbound and Down 