Most major European Union countries sent their foreign minister to the conference, but Britain´s Boris Johnson did not attend.
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According to the Palestinian leader, if the transfer takes place, “there would be several options for us, and we would discuss them with Arab countries”. Trump’s team reportedly objected to the conference, especially five days before Trump’s inauguration. The outgoing president Barack Obama has been postponing the implementation of the Act every six months.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attends the peace conference in Paris on Sunday. The progression in colonising Palestinian territories and the continued acts of daily violence jeopardise even further the chances of seeing two States, Israeli and Palestinian, coexist peacefully one day.
Francois Burgat, a political scientist and author, said if the French government wanted to meaningfully bring about peace, it could have taken a harder line with Israel as the occupying power. “This is a risky and disturbing situation”, Ayrault said.
At least that is the dream of the so-called “two-state solution” to end a decades-old conflict. “There is no other option”. His nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said a two-state solution was “the dream that everyone is in pursuit of”, while questioning its feasibility.
With Donald Trump set to enter the White House on Friday, Tel Aviv is betting on a friendly administration that will support all of its efforts to consolidate its occupation and even move the United States embassy to Jerusalem.
He said he wrote US President-elect Donald Trump “to ask him not to do this because it will not only deny the United States the right to play a role in solving this conflict, but will also destroy the two-state solution”.
Russian Federation conveyed an invitation to the meeting to Trump’s choice for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, in a phone call in late December, according to the transition team. He said it’s like preparing a dish of Israel’s future and security without Israel in the kitchen, then inviting the Jewish state in later to taste it.
Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Maliki said Abbas is “hoping that the Pope will participate in sending a strong message” to Trump about the dangers of the proposed move.
He added: “When you are president of the United States, you can not take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace”, Ayrault said.
The conference is the first meeting held at this level in nine years.
“It’s a rigged conference, rigged by the Palestinians with French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel stances”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Like France, it has always supported the Palestinian cause, and is also a friend and partner of Israel.
However, Palestinian public opinion no longer reflects this official position. “These are the death throes of yesterday’s world. Tomorrow will look a lot different, and tomorrow is very close”, he said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
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Britain attended only as an “observer”.
