Brussels, 08/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - France has not given up on holding a conference on Palestine this summer despite the surrounding scepticism and the hostility of Israel to the plan launched on 2 June by Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, who is working hard to get the international community moving, as the Palestinian Authority could, in September, seek recognition of statehood at the UN. Even the possibility of such a move would appear to be embarrassing the international partners. While visiting Ramallah (West Bank), Juppé announced that France stood ready to organise a conference in Paris before the end of July to relaunch the Middle East peace process.
“We see that the Palestinians are in agreement, that the Israelis are considering our proposal and, yesterday (Tuesday) in Washington, the Americans gave the Minister of State (Juppé) their approval”, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
The spokesman talked of joint diplomacy between European and other international partners. “Washington requested that our teams work in close cooperation and we are happy for that to happen. We will also work with the other members of the Quartet, and Quartet special representative Mr Blair who, this morning, gave his thoughts on the plan”, he said. The media report from Oslo, where he was on a visit, stated that Blair said that what the French Foreign Ministry had said was absolutely correct in that there is a need not only to garner support for the construction of a Palestinian state and Palestinian institutions but also to inject political will.
“We will consult our partners in the EU and the Arab League”, the French Foreign Ministry spokesman further said. He stated: “Our feeling today, and Alain Juppé said so in Washington, is that our initiative is raising real hope. We will, therefore, pursue our efforts because we believe that the status quo is not tenable and that it is dangerous for everyone. There are two possibilities: either we resign ourselves to the inevitability of failure, or we set to work on this initiative. It will come as no surprise to you that France has chosen the second option”. “It is never too late to give peace a chance, it is never too late to give negotiation a chance to resume”, he added.
According to Israeli daily Harretz, “Israeli and Palestinian delegates are separately holding covert talks (on Tuesday) with White House officials in Washington in an effort to reignite peace talks. The U.S. hopes the talks will hamper the Palestinian effort to gain United Nations recognition in a vote in September”. It goes on to say that, in Washington, it is felt that, at the moment, it is very unlikely that talks will resume. (F.B./transl.rt)