Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed the French idea of restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process with international support and the backing of a UN Security Council resolution.
Speaking at a joint news conference with French Minister of Foreign Affair Laurent Fabius, who was visiting the region to advance the French-led initiative, Netanyahu said: “Peace will only come from direct negotiations between the parties, without preconditions. It will not come from UN resolutions that are sought to be imposed from the outside.”
Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu had employed sharper language, telling his Cabinet ministers in broadcast remarks: “We strongly reject attempts to force international diktat on us in regard to both security and peace.”
These international efforts, Netanyahu added, failed to address “the security needs of the state of Israel and our other national interests.”
With peace talks stalled for more than a year, France has been sounding out the possibility of beginning the process with the help of Arab states, the EU and UN Security Council members, supported by a council resolution that would set parameters for new negotiations on Palestinian statehood and perhaps establish a time frame for them.
Fabius asked that his effort not be prejudged.
After meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Fabius warned that lack of progress could result in an explosion of violence in the area.
“If we are to succeed, we must discuss these ideas without prior judgment,” he said, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, adding that the goal was “to achieve an independent Palestinian state and security for the state of Israel.”
Fabius said that the word “diktat” was not part of the French vocabulary or the French proposals.
In Jerusalem, Fabius tried to soften the tone of the disagreement, emphasizing that there was no substitute for bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. However, he added that international organizations had an important role to play in promoting new peace talks.
Underlining the deep rift between the Israeli and Palestinian sides, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki said the Palestinians welcomed the French effort and would do whatever was necessary to help it succeed.
Fabius met on Saturday in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and with a committee of Arab foreign ministers.
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