Rubio refrains from rebuking UK counterpart over Palestine recognition after criticizing French FM

The State Department avoids criticizing Britain for its plans to recognize a Palestinian state, hours after stressing its opposition to the move in a readout on a call US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held with his French counterpart Jean Noel-Barrot.

While both France and the UK have announced plans to recognize Palestine at the UN General Assembly, only Paris was called out for the move in the US readouts on Rubio’s calls with his French and British counterparts earlier today.

The latter readout on Rubio’s call with David Lammy just says the pair “discussed Hamas and the situation in Gaza, including efforts to bring all the hostages home.”

The US readout on the call with Noel-Barrot said Rubio conveyed Washington’s “strong opposition to any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian State, a move that would reward Hamas for October 7 and hinder efforts to bring all hostages home.”

While US readouts are often regurgitations of talking points without little details, they are sometimes used to signal subtle diplomatic messages, and the differences between the two statements potentially indicated a different approach in Washington to its ties with the United Kingdom and France regarding their planned recognition of a state of Palestine.

France notably was the first country that announced it would take the step, with the UK, Canada, Australia and Belgium among the others following suit.