Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected the French initiative for an global conference to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, but told visiting French Prime Minister that he is willing to meet Abbas in person for peace.
Advertisement
The Israeli leader urged French Prime Minister Manuel Valls to cancel a summit conference of at least 20 countries in Paris on June 3 in attempts to begin Middle East peace.
Last week, following weeks of reports that Netanyahu was negotiating with the Zionist Union to create a national unity government, the prime minister surprised many when he invited the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party into his governing coalition, appointing former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as defense minister.
Valls has sought to address Israeli concerns over the French initiative, saying it would not try to impose a solution and that negotiations between the two sides would ultimately resolve the conflict.
Valls said he would deliver the message to French president Francois Hollande. The Palestinians, unlike Israel, have voiced support for France’s conference.
“We know we, as French and Europeans, we know that our own security, our own stability depends on peace, the region’s peace, peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, he said.
“You said that direct talks are very hard right now”, Netanyahu added, speaking to Valls.
He spoke of the importance of “direct negotiations” through which “the Palestinian leadership must face a stark choice and recognize the Jewish state” and warned that the French initiative, in its current state, may push Palestinians to “avoid” direct talks.
“The reason that this UNESCO vote was so troubling for us is that it implies that the Jewish people have no right to be here”.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, third from left. paying respects at a ceremony in Paris for the victims of terrorist attacks in the French capital, Jan, 10, 2016. The proposed Paris talks would exclude both Israelis and Palestinians.
Later in the fall, an global peace conference is expected to take place with the attendance of Israeli and Palestinians, with the eventual aim of restarting peace talks between both parties. Earlier on Tuesday, a PA spokesman rejected Netanyahu’s call for direct talks, arguing that his actions prove he is not serious about a negotiated settlement. He says a conference is no substitute for direct negotiations, without preconditions, between the sides.
Lieberman, who lives in a West Bank settlement and is detested by the Palestinians, is expected to take on the key role of defence minister.
Advertisement
“We will not achieve it through a United Nations -style worldwide conference, or diktats from the global community regarding our security”, Netanyahu said.
