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 recognized 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 US-brokered, Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in October, but Israel again rejected any prospect of Palestinian statehood.
Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule
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 organizational," he told reporters.