Macron uses final UN address to denounce Trump's Gaza diplomacy as "spectacle that should shame everyone"

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has used his final address to the United Nations General Assembly to dismiss US President Donald Trump’s claims of having secured peace in Gaza, saying not a single humanitarian corridor had been reopened in the enclave despite the proclaimed peace, Reuters reported on 22 September.

Speaking at UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday, hours after Trump had used the same rostrum to hail his Gaza peace plan as a diplomatic triumph, Macron — who leaves office next year ahead of France’s presidential election in seven months — said the world was witnessing “a spectacle that should shame everyone”. He made his first UN address in 2017.

“A year ago, here in this very hall, about a dozen states had recognized Palestine,” Macron said, banging his fist on the podium. “But what credibility do we have if we continue to remain inactive in the face of Gaza? Some boast of a supposed peace. But that peace has not reopened humanitarian access for a single second. Are we simply to stand by and watch this spectacle that should shame us all?”

Trump had told the assembly earlier that “a few weeks later, we ended the war in Gaza, saving untold thousands of lives”. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After Macron’s speech, the US State Department quoted Trump on X touting the UN Security Council’s unanimous approval of a 20-point Gaza peace plan and the creation of a Board of Peace as “fantastic”.

Macron has faced criticism among some politicians and activists in France for doing little since recognising a Palestinian state last September. Paris has since toughened its stance, imposing some national sanctions over settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and launching a process to ban products from Israeli settlements, Reuters reported.

“Look at what is happening in the West Bank, where every day violations are committed. In whose name? Hamas has never operated in the West Bank,” Macron said, adding that those who believed violating the sovereignty of Israel’s neighbours would ensure its security “are weakening Israel’s security, both today and in the future”.

He warned against a global “return to the law of the jungle” and closed his speech with “Long Live the United Nations!”