The French President Emmanuel Macron said today, Friday, February 16, 2024, that recognizing a Palestinian state was “not a taboo for France” in his first such comments since the start of the war in Gaza.

“The recognition of a Palestinian state is not a taboo for France,” he said at a joint press conference in Paris with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

His comments come after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a plan for international recognition of such a state, following reports of such an initiative in The Washington Post.

The US newspaper reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.

Macron also repeated a warning against Israel attacking the city of Rafah, the southernmost point in the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory of Gaza.

“An Israeli offensive in Rafah could only bring about an unprecedented humanitarian disaster and would be a turning point in this conflict,” he said.