Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met French President Nicolas Sarkozy for talks on the crisis in the Middle East peace process on Wednesday and appeared to open the door to talks with Syria.
Neither leader spoke to reporters after their two-hour meeting at the Elysee Palace and Netanyahu set off for the airport immediately afterwards. The pair had addressed the media after both their previous Paris meetings.
A short statement from Sarkozy’s office said that the talks had included only the leaders and one senior advisor each.
They discussed “international issues and notably ways to restart the Middle East peace process,” it said.
While the mood surrounding the meeting was downbeat, however, afterwards an Israeli official did hold open the chance of progress in one of the overlapping negotiating tracks that make up the stalled regional peace plan.
“Mr Sarkozy raised the issue of the Syrian track,” the senior aide said. “The prime minister said he is willing to meet with the Syrian president at any time and anywhere to move on the peace negotiations on the basis of no preconditions.”
Earlier in Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a meeting of Arab politicians that Syria would not “put forward conditions on making peace,” but warned it had “rights that we will not renounce,” the SANA news agency said.
Al-Assad is due in Paris today for talks with Sarkozy.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War and unilaterally annexed it in 1981. Damascus has repeatedly demanded the strategic plateau’s return as a non-negotiable condition for peace.
Telephone talks arranged by Turkish mediators between the arch foes were broken off last year during Israel’s offensive in Gaza, closing a promising diplomatic channel toward a broader Middle East settlement.
Last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Paris that he was ready to resume his role as mediator of three-way telephone conversations between Israeli and Syrian leaders at any time.
Speaking in Jerusalem, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday said the meeting had helped pave the way for the possible restarting of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
“This meeting was good, important and constructive. It lifted a number of obstacles and created a decisive base for the resumption of negotiations that will allow us to reach an agreement with our neighbors, the Palestinians,” Barak said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was