Rubio said earlier this week that French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood had blown any chance of successful ceasefire talks between Israel and the Hamas militant group, echoing similar accusations made last month. Hamas walked away from negotiations “the minute, the day that the French announced their thing,” according to Rubio.
The French Response account’s messages highlight the time stamps of social media posts by Macron and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to argue that “negotiations had already collapsed before France’s announcement.”
It also pointed to a declaration at a July United Nations conference, spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia, which read that the “recognition and realization of the State of Palestine are an essential and indispensable component of the achievement of the two-state solution.”
And it listed a message by U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff announcing that the U.S. would pull out of ceasefire talks, saying Hamas wasn’t acting in good faith.
Barrot’s ministry is bolstering its capacity to detect disinformation through “monitoring hubs” on social networks and created the “automated response account” in order to “counter the spurious attacks targeted at us,” the minister said in remarks published by BFM TV.
Macron announced in July that France would recognize Palestinian statehood. The U.K., Canada, Australia and Belgium have since made similar announcements.