France could harden its position on Israel if it continues to block humanitarian aid to Gaza, French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday, reiterating that Paris was committed to a two-state solution to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“The humanitarian blockade is creating a situation that is untenable on the ground,” Macron said at a joint press conference in Singapore with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財).
“And so, if there is no response that meets the humanitarian situation in the coming hours and days, obviously, we will have to toughen our collective position,” Macron said, adding that France might consider applying sanctions against Israeli settlers.
Photo: AFP
“But I still hope that the government of Israel will change its stance and that we will finally have a humanitarian response,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has hit back at growing international pressure over the war in Gaza, the deadliest fighting in decades of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
Macron was in Singapore on a state visit and is also to deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier security forum, which runs began yesterday and is to run until tomorrow.
Deep differences between Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel have stymied previous attempts to restore a ceasefire that broke down in March. Under growing international pressure, Israel partially ended an 11-week-long aid blockade on Gaza, allowing a limited amount of relief to be delivered via two avenues — the UN or the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Macron said Paris is committed to working toward a political solution and reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Macron is leaning towards recognizing a Palestinian state, diplomats and experts said, a move that could infuriate Israel and deepen Western splits.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
RSS