John Kerry Reassures Israel About Paris Peace Conference
Image by Getty Images
Israel said on Sunday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had sought to reassure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a Middle East peace conference being held in Paris, which neither Israel nor the Palestinians are attending.
Some 70 countries, including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, were in Paris for a meeting that Netanyahu has rejected as “futile.”
Netanyahu’s office issued a statement on Sunday saying that “Kerry called Netanyahu to tell him about the moves the U.S. was taking at the conference to soften the wording of the Paris communique.”
It added that the Israeli leader had replied by saying that “Israel had already suffered damage after the U.S. did not veto a Security Council resolution (last month) and it should not be compounded.”
The statement said that Kerry committed to Netanyahu that there would be no resulting consequences to the conference, neither at the United Nations Security Council or at the conference itself and that “the U.S. would oppose any proposal that may be put forward to the Security Council.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
