France to help Palestinians draft constitution for future state, Macron says

France will help the Palestinian Authority draft a constitution for a future state, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday 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 U.S.-brokered, Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in October but Israel again rejected any prospect of Palestinian statehood.



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.