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January 16, 2017

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Diplomats push for peace and a Palestinian state

FEARING a new eruption of violence in the Middle East, more than 70 world diplomats gathered in Paris yesterday to push for renewed peace talks that would lead to a Palestinian state.

The conference is meant to be a forceful message to US President-elect Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that much of the world wants peace and sees a two-state solution as the best way to achieve it in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“A two-state solution is the only possible one,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in opening the conference, calling it “more indispensable than ever” to solve the protracted conflict.

Netanyahu has snubbed the conference as “rigged” against Israel, and Trump’s incoming administration isn’t taking part.

The gathering is an “empty summit” cooked up behind Israel’s back and is designed to force conditions on the country that are against its national interests, Netanyahu said.

French diplomats fear Trump will unleash new tensions in the region by condoning settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians and potentially moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem.

“Both parties are very far apart and their relationship is one of distrust — a particularly dangerous situation,” Ayrault said at the conference. “Our collective responsibility is to bring Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table. We know it is difficult, but is there an alternative? No, there isn’t.”

He also warned the US president-elect against relocating the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a move to recognize the contested city as Israel’s capital.

Ayrault said such a move, which Trump promised during his campaign, would have “extremely serious consequences” and predicted he would find it impossible to implement.

“When you are president of the United States, you cannot take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace,” he told France 3 TV.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris defending American interests at the conference, in his last major diplomatic foray before he leaves office. It marks the end of eight years of failed US efforts at Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy.

Netanyahu declined an invitation to a special meeting after the conference, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was initially expected, but his visit to Paris was postponed.

Reference to Trump

Netanyahu said the gathering would do little to promote peace and marks the “last flutters of yesterday’s world.”

“Tomorrow will look different and tomorrow is very close,” he said in apparent reference to Trump’s inauguration.

According to a draft statement, the conference will urge Israel and the Palestinians “to officially restate their commitment to the two-state solution.”

It also will affirm that the international community “will not recognize” changes to Israel’s pre-1967 lines without agreement by both sides.

The final conference declaration may also warn Trump against moving the embassy, a move that could be seen as recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital after decades of insisting the city’s status must be determined by direct negotiations.

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have not negotiated, even indirectly, since a failed US-led peace effort in 2014.

Israel’s expansion of settlements on land the Palestinians want for their state is seen as a major obstacle to a resolution.

The Palestinians regard Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its capital.

“Any attempts at legitimizing the illegal Israeli annexation of the city will destroy the prospects of any political process, bury the hopes for a two-state solution, and fuel extremism in our region, as well as worldwide,” Abbas said.




 

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