Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Sunday, days after President Donald Trump declared that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city, and announced that the State Department would begin the process of relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
President Donald Trump made the historic announcement on Wednesday, drawing criticism from European allies and much of the Arab and Muslim world. Riots broke out following the announcement, peaking Friday afternoon.
Prior to Trump’s announcement, French President Emmanuel Macron urged the American leader not to publicly recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, pressing him in a phone call to preserve the status quo.
On Sunday, Macron met with Netanyahu, one of the few world leaders to praise President Trump for his historic step in recognizing Israel’s capital.
During the meeting, Macron pressed the Israeli premier to restrict the growth of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, and urging him to present goodwill gestures to the Palestinian Authority in a bid to reboot final status negotiations, which have been frozen since 2014.
"It seems to me that freezing settlement building and confidence measures with regard to the Palestinian authority are important acts to start with, which we discussed with Prime Minister Netanyahu," Macron said. READ MORE
