Tension is mounting between the United States and France over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

If the United States is reluctant to adopt a declaration condemning the violence in the Middle East, the country calls for an immediate de-escalation.

An insufficient declaration for France.  

France and the United States have initiated a standoff at the UN over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the first open crisis between the two allies since the coming to power of Joe Biden who had promised an American re-engagement in multilateral diplomacy . After eight days of blocking the Security Council of the United States to the adoption of a declaration condemning the violence in the Middle East, France, with the assistance of Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia, drew on Tuesday a draft resolution calling for a "cessation of hostilities" and "humanitarian access", in particular to Gaza.

Without proposing a voting date.

Bluff?

Increased pressure on the United States to harden its position with regard to Israel?

The US president called for immediate de-escalation on Wednesday.

And the dry response to France from the United States, which was one of the rare members of the 15 of the Security Council to benefit from access to the text, according to a diplomat, was not long in coming, with a threat outright veto. 

"Avoiding an Israeli ground offensive" in Gaza

"We have been clear and consistent that we are focusing on ongoing intensive diplomatic efforts to end the violence and that we will not support actions that we believe undermine efforts towards de-escalation." , a spokeswoman for the US mission to the UN told AFP. "The American position will be quite decisive. (...) It is true that we have seen the United States a little behind all this", declared in Paris the head of French diplomacy, Jean- Yves Le Drian, during a hearing at the National Assembly.

"The prolongation of the actions is not useful to anyone. It is absolutely necessary to avoid an Israeli ground offensive which would open a truly uncontrollable phase", he added, stressing that "the first action to be carried out is the cessation of hostilities on As fast as possible".

"We really hope that there can be humanitarian measures very quickly," said the minister. 

The misunderstanding among the American allies

The policy of Washington, Israel's first ally, for ten days at the UN has not changed despite its growing isolation. The United States rejected three proposed statements presented by China, Tunisia (representing the Arab world in the Council) and Norway. And they also balked at the organization of Council meetings, four since May 10, even causing the postponement of one of them finally held on Sunday and in public.

On the side of the traditional European allies of the United States and even beyond, it is misunderstanding. "The members of the Council have a collective responsibility for international peace and security. It is high time for the Council to intervene, break its silence and speak out," said the Irish ambassador, a non-permanent member, on Tuesday. , Geraldine Byrne Nason. "We are simply asking the United States to support a Security Council statement that would say things similar to those being said bilaterally by Washington," one of his European counterparts recently noted, on condition of anonymity.

"It's a bit strange considering the expectation that we all had for the Americans to return to multilateral diplomacy," another ambassador told AFP, also on condition of anonymity.

"We also thought that the United States would be keen to show the relevance of the Security Council in situations like this," he added.

Palpable tensions

The palpable tensions between France and the United States could leave traces and affect other issues. At the UN, the two countries also displayed a serious disagreement on Tuesday on the aid to be given to the anti-jihadist force G5 Sahel. Paris, very politically and militarily involved in the region, has been campaigning for years for financial, logistical and operational support from the UN to this force of 5,000 under-equipped soldiers, provided by Niger, Chad, Mauritania and Mali. and Burkina Faso, and which has struggled to convince of its effectiveness since its creation in 2017.

Under the Republican administration of Donald Trump, this had been a categorical refusal and France hoped that with its Democratic successor Joe Biden, a turnaround would take place. Negative again, Washington said earlier this week, which prefers, as under the previous administration, to favor bilateral aid rather than commit to UN funding which could be endless.