Mr. Obama’s secretary of state, John Kerry, said the settlement program threatened Middle East peace and the two-state solution. It also warned them against taking one-sided actions that could hurt talks, an apparent reference to Israeli settlement building.
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The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refused to attend the talks, saying he will only hold direct bilateral talks with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinians are hoping the Paris conference delivers a strong worldwide endorsement of the two-state solution, a goal that has been the bedrock of the Mideast policy of the last several American administrations.
“The two-state solution is not the dream of a system of the past, it is still the goal for the future of the worldwide community in all its diversity”, Hollande said, in an apparent reference to Netanyahu’s earlier statements. Trump’s campaign platform made no mention of Palestinian independence.
The British government probably fears that the conference risks becoming an attempt to circumscribe USA policy on Israel before the Trump team has decided this. And some of the pro-Palestinian language in an earlier draft was removed after diplomats huddled in Paris on Sunday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington DC, on January 10, 2017.
“The most important priority must be a resumption of direct negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians for a two-state solution as soon as possible”.
“(The Paris conference) is like a wedding with neither bride nor groom”, she said, referencing the absence of any role for Israel and the Palestinian Authority in contributing to its outcome.
“We are not inciting violence”, he said.
“We have received information on the latest statement of [US President-elect] Donald Trump in which he said that his administration planned to move the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem”, Erekat said. “We think it’s ill-advised”.
Mr Trump has pledged greater support for Israel when he takes office, urging the country to “stay strong”.
The Palestinians, who also are not invited to this weekend’s conference, have welcomed the French initiative.
“Peace can not be found in hate”.
Palestinians are concerned over President-elect Trump’s intention to the move the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Ayrault said that he and other senior French officials met with both sides in recent months, and said he is willing to travel to the region to present the conference’s conclusions.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who is attending Sunday’s summit as one of his last worldwide appearances in official capacity, said in a farewell speech last month that Israel’s continued settlement growth threatens the possibility of a two-state solution.
“It is not a question of dictating to the parties”, Hollande insisted. “Our collective responsibility is to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table”.
He added that this is why the PA is “actually quite keen on the Paris conference” and this is why “Netanyahu had tried so hard to block it; not because it would produce anything that Netanyahu would have to stick to, but because it would remind the world that it can not be leaving the fate of Palestinians to the will of Netanyahu”. “Peace will only be done by the Israelis and Palestinians, nobody else”.
President Abbas himself has warned the move would cause major setbacks to the Israel-Palestine peace process.
“I must say this conference is one of the last gasps for breath from yesterday’s world”. Republicans and even many Democratic lawmakers reacted angrily to the administration’s United Nations vote in December and a subsequent speech by Kerry on the Israeli-Palestinian impasse.
Will this conference internationalise the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?
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A shift on settlements could prove more dramatic, making a Palestinian state all but impossible to cobble together.
