The statement read that the parties “reaffirmed that a negotiated two-state solution is the only way to achieve an enduring peace, with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security”.
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Palestinians have launched scores of deadly knife attacks against Israelis since October, protesting the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as perceived violations – denied by Israel – at a disputed Jerusalem holy site.
Israelis and Palestinians were noticeably absent, as foreign ministers from 29 countries met in Paris to discuss the Mideast peace process.
Reuters is reporting that Israeli officials are speaking with the prosector of the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding its preliminary examination in Palestine. Last week the U.S. state department said Mr Lieberman’s appointment raised “legitimate questions” about the direction of Israeli policy.
After a delay of some two hours with the delegates from the 29 countries and global organizations trying to come to a consensus statement, a joint rather bland communique was issued with the participants reaffirming their “support for a just, lasting and comprehensive resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. “These actions raise legitimate questions about its commitment to the two-state solution and to its obligations as the Occupying Power”, Ban said. “Let’s get into the conversations”.
The French-led effort to arrange a peace conference this year aims to salvage a decades-old goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state.
While objecting to the French initiative, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stopped short of saying Israel would boycott the conference, although Dore Gold, director-general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, told reporters in Jerusalem that the initiative was doomed.
“In a way, the French initiative has already had an impact, as it has forced Netanyahu to propose an alternative in the Arab Peace Initiative”, a European diplomat in Israel told AFP.
Speaking in Cairo before the Arab League meeting last week, Abbas advocated the presence of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces in the Israeli-occupied West Bank as part of any peace deal that would implement the two-state solution. “The holding of general elections in Palestine in the near future is essential”.
“There’s a real possibility for normalisation with many countries in this region, and that kind of framework makes a lot more sense”, he said.
That two-state solution was supposed to be implemented by 1998, under the terms of the original Oslo Accord. Negotiations have been moribund since 2008, and a nine-month effort by Kerry to restart the talks collapsed with mutual recriminations.
The vague reference to a future worldwide peace conference suggests the idea was rebuffed in private discussions among lower-level aides before French President Francois Hollande, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Friday.
“Currently everything is blocked”.
In a column in the French daily Le Monde on Thursday, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said the old method of bilateral talks had failed and that it was time to move to a “multilateral framework” that would allow the worldwide community to impose global law in the region.
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French President François Hollande opened the conference calling for Israelis and Palestinians to take “the fearless step toward peace”.
