France Willing to Host Talks on Palestinian State
France is willing to host Middle East peace talks that would take “political steps” toward creating a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said.
“We don’t want a conference that is just another session of giving aid,” Fillon said in Paris today after meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. “We see a state as absolutely necessary and we see no reason why it shouldn’t be created this year.”
Fayyad said a Paris conference would be “very important” and Europe’s role in talks with Israel should grow. Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was willing “to meet the Palestinian leadership for direct talks here in Jerusalem, there in Ramallah or in any other mutually agreeable place.”
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks fell apart in September after Netanyahu refused to extend a partial 10-month construction freeze in West Bank settlements. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will not conduct negotiations as long as the building continues.
Netanyahu yesterday called on Abbas to resume talks, saying that the upheaval in Egypt underlined the need for a “stable” peace agreement in an “instable” region.
To contact the reporter on this story: Gregory Viscusi in Paris at gviscusi@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.
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