French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump could earn a Nobel Peace Prize only if he succeeded in ending the Gaza conflict, amid Israel's genocidal attacks on the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
Macron told BFMTV in an interview from the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York that Trump "wants the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Prize is only possible if you stop this conflict."
Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday told the Security Council that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in one of its "darkest chapters" as the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate.
"We are confronting one of the darkest chapters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Guterres said at a council session on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, adding: "The Israeli military onslaught in Gaza City is compounding an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis."
Noting that countless Palestinian civilians and the remaining hostages are trapped under relentless bombardment, deprived of food, water, electricity, and medicine, Guterres said: "Famine is a reality, with the population constantly forced to move and being starved."
"To call this situation untenable and morally and legally indefensible does not begin to capture the scale of human suffering," he added.
Decrying the repeated violations of international law and U.N. resolutions that continue to be ignored, he stressed that "international humanitarian law is (being) violated. Impunity prevails. And our collective credibility is being undermined."
Guterres highlighted the regional implications of the conflict, noting that Israeli violence is spreading "from Gaza into the occupied West Bank, and beyond, including several countries in the region, and recently even Qatar."
Meanwhile, Macron said that France was ready to respond if Israel imposed sanctions over his country's recognition of the State of Palestine.
"If it were to happen, we would respond, we would be ready. We are ready for everything. But I believe that in this moment, we must choose a path of peace and a path of friendship," Macron told broadcaster BFM TV.
Asked about possible Israeli sanctions on France over its recent recognition of the state of Palestine, he said France has planned for "every possible option."
"If the war also continues in Gaza City, if the armies continue today to push forward and kill civilians, we cannot remain passive," Macron also said, underlining that U.S. pressure on Israel would also be "key."
Macron stressed that Tel Aviv has "no longer" a plan and that it "condemns" its people to live in "perpetual war" if Israel's project is to destroy its neighbor.
"Faced with this situation, there is one person who can do something: the American president. And why can he do more than we can? Because we do not supply weapons that allow the war in Gaza. We do not provide equipment to wage war in Gaza. The United States of America does," he added.
On U.S. President Donald Trump's statements on wanting peace and his push for a Nobel Peace Prize for resolving conflicts, Macron said pointedly: "The Nobel Peace Prize is only possible if you stop this conflict. And so pressure must be put on the Israeli government to stop the conflict in Gaza."
All that is needed is "political will," he said.
"I believe that the mobilization we have launched helps to increase pressure on Israel and also on Prime Minister Netanyahu's government. But it also helps to show all Israelis that this is a peace project, that we want to do it with them," Macron said.
He further stressed that recognition of a state of Palestine is "the only way" to isolate Hamas and added: "It is completely false to say that this is a reward for Hamas."
