Talks Begin in Paris to Revive Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An international conference began in Paris on Friday to put Israel-Palestinian peacemaking back on the international agenda and find enough common ground to bring the two sides back to the table by the end of the year.
Representatives of nearly 30 countries, including the United Nations, European Union, and the Arab League attended the meeting to plan for the French Initiative expected to be held by the end of the year.
With US efforts to broker a deal on a Palestinian state on Israel-occupied land in deep freeze for two years and Washington focused on its November presidential election, France has lobbied key players to hold a conference that would aim to break the apathy over the impasse and stir new diplomatic momentum.
French President Hollande said at the start of the meeting that the “regional upheaval” in the Middle East has made finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even more urgent, and stressed that peace talks must consider the needs of the entire region.
Israeli and Palestinian representatives were not invited to the meeting, according to Ma'an News Agency.
Netanyahu first rejected the French initiative in April, saying the “best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestinians is through direct, bilateral negotiations," and instead voiced his support for Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi’s trilateral initiative aiming to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders face to face and create steps towards the unification of Palestinian political factions.
The Palestinian Authority, however, has expressed support for the French initiative, and in April shelved the submission of a new anti-settlement resolution to the UN out of fear that doing so could thwart progress of new French proposals.
Newly-appointed Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently issued a joint statement in support of reviving the 2002 Arab peace initiative for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which called for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territory in exchange for full normalization of ties with Arab states.
All past efforts towards peace negotiations have failed to end the decades-long Israeli military occupation or bring Palestinians closer to an independent contiguous state.
The most recent spate of negotiations led by the US collapsed in April 2014.
Israel claimed the process failed because the Palestinians refused to accept a US framework document outlining the way forward, while Palestinians pointed to Israel's ongoing settlement building and the regime's refusal to release veteran prisoners.
