“I can’t say that there is a French initiative, yet we are prepared to work with France, int’l community to ensure success of the idea of the international conference.”
PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday that there was no French initiative for peace in the Middle East, but only ideas for holding an international conference.
Erekat’s remarks came after he met in Ramallah with French envoy Pierre Vimont. The French emissary is scheduled to meet later with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riad Malki.
Erekat said on Tuesday that there was no French initiative for peace in the Middle East, but only ideas for holding an international conference.
Erekat’s remarks came after he met in Ramallah with French envoy Pierre Vimont. The French emissary is scheduled to meet later with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Foreign Minister Riad Malki.
Erekat said that the Palestinians would be the biggest losers if the French ideas failed and the peace process stopped.
He said that he told the French envoy that the Palestinians were prepared to work with the idea of convening an international conference.
“We are a people paying with the blood of our sons and daughters at a rate of three per day,” Erekat said. “We are a people who witness every day the destruction of the two-state solution option by the Israeli government through dictates, assassinations, extra-judicial executions, sieges, closures and the imposing of facts on the ground.”
Erekat added: “I can’t say that there is a French initiative, yet we are prepared to work with France and the international community to ensure the success of the idea of the international conference. The only solution lies in ending the occupation and Israeli war crimes, settlements, collective punishment and other practices.”
Vimont held talks with Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s special diplomatic envoy Isaac Molho.
Gold, in the past, has spoken against the idea of international conferences to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Foreign Ministry issued a skeptical statement following Gold’s meeting with Vimont.
“The Israeli side emphasized the importance of the principle of direct negotiations,” the Foreign Ministry said. “There should be bilateral talks without preconditions.”
It added however, that the Palestinian Authority must fight against terrorism and incitement.
The Foreign Ministry said those who met with Vimont asked questions in an attempt to understand the French initiative.
The US Administration recently launched an effort to scuttle the French initiative, a Palestinian official said. “The Americans have made it clear that they don’t want other parties meddling in the Israel-Arab conflict,” the official said.
Another official added: “I don’t see how this is going to work when the US administration has endorsed the Israeli stance, which basically rejects the idea of convening an international conference.”
“Besides, Israel does not want the international community to play any role in the conflict,” he added.
In Brussels, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault presented his initiative to the foreign ministers of the European Union’s 28 member states.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said all the member states welcomed Ayrault’s efforts to coordinate his country’s work with theirs and that of the Quartet.
The United States has carefully made positive public statements about the initiative, but has yet to endorse it, preferring instead to see Israelis and Palestinians relaunch direct talks. The last bilateral Israeli Palestinian peace process ended without results in April 2014.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post