Macron told France 5 television on Wednesday that he aimed to finalise the move at a United Nations conference on the Israel-Palestine conflict, which his country will co-chair with Saudi Arabia in June.

“We must move towards recognition, and we will do so in the coming months,” Macron said.

“I’m not doing it to please anyone. I’ll do it because at some point it will be right,” he said.

Palestinian Authority’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, told the news agency AFP that France’s recognition would be “a step in the right direction in line with safeguarding the rights of the Palestinian people and the two-state solution”.

MP/