Bemused French president forced to take unscheduled 30-minute trek through the streets of New York
Emmanuel Macron had to walk half an hour by foot through New York after his speech to the United Nations on recognising Palestine as a state.
Video footage shows him getting out of his car to talk to police officers after they stop his vehicle to make way for the expected arrival of the motorcade of Donald Trump, the US president.
The footage, which was captured by a reporter from the social media outlet Brut, appears to show the French president saying he needs to get to his country’s consulate.
“I’m sorry, president, I’m really sorry, everything has been frozen, there’s a motorcade coming right now,” an officer tells Macron.
The president then looks out over the empty street and replies: “I don’t see it, let me cross.”
Macron, who remains stuck behind a metal barrier, takes out his phone and appears to call Trump directly. Leaning on the barrier, he says, laughingly: “How are you? Guess what? I’m waiting in the street because everything is frozen for you.”
Macron later appears to be allowed through on foot but not in his car. Still on his phone, he proceeds to stride off down the street, past shoppers and pedestrians. The reporter from Brut said Macron walked for about 30 minutes with his security detail. He stopped and posed with passersby who asked for photographs, including one encounter with a man who kissed him on the forehead.
“The time has come to end the war in Gaza, the massacres and the death,” Macron had said during his opening speech to a special summit at the UN on Monday evening. “The time has come to do justice for the Palestinian people and thus to recognise the state of Palestine in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
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Announcing France’s official recognition of Palestine, the president set out a plan for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force in postwar Gaza that is expected to find support in many countries but not in Israel or the US.

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