Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Thursday urged his French counterpart to withdraw Paris’s planned unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood this month, telling him that French President Emmanuel Macron will not be welcome to visit Israel so long as the move remains on the agenda.

In a phone call, Israel’s top diplomat called on French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot “to reconsider France’s initiative to recognize a ‘Palestinian state,’ stating that the French initiative undermines stability in the Middle East and harms Israel’s national and security interests,” according to a statement from Sa’ar’s office.

“Israel seeks good relations with France, but France must respect Israel’s position when it comes to matters essential to its security and future,” Sa’ar stressed during the conversation.

Sa’ar also said that any visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to Israel “has no place” so long as France “persists in its initiative and in efforts that harm Israel’s interests.”

Last night, the Kan public broadcaster reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conditioned a request by Macron to visit on France scrapping the recognition initiative — a demand the French president rejected.

The two foreign ministers also discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip, the European snapback process against Iran, Lebanon, and the war in Ukraine, Sa’ar’s statement added.

There was no immediate French readout of the call.

Amid the mounting criticism, Macron announced that France would formally recognize a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September. Many Western nations have followed in Paris’s footsteps.

Netanyahu told “Abu Ali Express,” a popular account on the Telegram messaging app, during an interview Thursday that such moves contradicted agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which determined that disputed issues would be solved through negotiation.

“But if they take unilateral steps against us, don’t be surprised if we take unilateral steps as well. What we will do exactly, I won’t reveal here,” he said.

Meanwhile, the United States has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.

“We told all these countries, we told them all, we said if you guys do this recognition stuff, it’s all fake, it’s not even real, if you do it you’re going to create problems,” Rubio said from Quito, where he met with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and his Ecuadorian counterpart.

“There’s going to be a response, it’s going to make it harder to get a ceasefire, and it may even trigger these sorts of actions that you’ve seen, or at least these attempts at these actions,” Rubio said, adding he would not opine on Israeli discussion of annexation of the West Bank but that it was not final.

In a letter sent to the French president in mid-August, Netanyahu complained that Macron’s promise that France would recognize a Palestinian state was fueling antisemitism.

Macron hit back last week, rejecting the premier’s criticisms and warning the issue of antisemitism should not be “weaponized.”