France Sets May 30 Date for Mideast Peace Conference
Image by Getty Images
France will hold an international conference in Paris on May 30 in a bid relaunch talks between Palestinians and Israelis by the end of the year, its foreign minister said in remarks published on Thursday.
With U.S. efforts to broker a two-state accord in tatters since April 2014 and Washington focused on a November presidential election, Paris has lobbied countries to commit to a conference before then that would set out a framework to get Israelis and Palestinians back into negotiations.
“There is no other solution to the conflict other than a two-state solution, Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and security with Jerusalem a shared capital,” Jean-Marc Ayrault said in a joint interview with daily newspapers Liberation, the Wall Street Journal, Al-Quds al-Arabi and Haaretz.
“The two sides are more divided than ever. I’m not naive, but am acting in good faith. There is no alternative. The other option is fatalism and I refuse it,” he said.
France’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, Pierre Vimont, completed a report earlier this month after selling the initiative across the Arab world, Israel, the U.S. and Russia, among others.
The idea is to pave the way for face-to-face talks between the two sides after the summer with the meeting on May 30 beginning on the basis of a 2002 Arab peace plan that at the time was rejected by Israel.
The May conference will include the Middle East Quartet (the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations), the Arab League, the U.N. Security Council and about 20 countries.
“We welcome that and are looking forward to help,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told reporters at the United Nations, in response to the French announcement.
While not rejecting the notion of a conference, Israel has been lukewarm to the idea, repeating its stance that it is prepared to enter direct negotiation without preconditions and without dictated terms.
Last year France failed to get the United States support for a U.N. Security Council resolution to set parameters for talks between the two sides and set a deadline for a deal.
Since then, the stance of former foreign minister Laurent Fabius to recognize a Palestinian state automatically if the new initiative fails has been toned down.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
