Despite Obstacles, France Still Working for Mideast Peace Conference

Paris, 18 Safar 1438/18 November 2016 (MINA) – Despite an outright rejection of the proposal by Israel, and only lukewarm support from some other potential participants, France is continuing efforts to organize a major Middle East peace conference at summit level.

But this appears unlikely before the end-of-year deadline, official statements indicated Thursday.

Pierre Vimont, France’s special envoy, has just completed another tour of the Israeli and Palestinian camps, but failed to get a commitment to the conference from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, although he got the support of the Palestinian side, KUNA reported, quoting diplomats.

Vimont has just completed consultations in the US to try to garner support from the US Administration but this comes at a time of transition in the US and incoming President Donald Trump appears unlikely to get on board as he is a strong supporter of Israel.

It is also unlikely that outgoing President Barack Obama will sign on to the French idea only two months before he leaves office.

Nonetheless, France, which launched its peace initiative in Paris on June 3, with a ministerial meeting of over 25 countries and organizations, is determined to pursue its goal of getting all concerned parties around the table.

Israel staunchly rejects expanding participation in the peace negotiations to more countries in the UN Security Council and in the Arab world and the EU and says it wants direct talks with the Palestinians.

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said President Francois Hollande is sticking to a commitment on organizing the conference that he made before the UN General Assembly on September 20.

“Our objective is to bring together an international conference for restarting peace in the Middle East,” Nadal said on Thursday.

However, the French official did not reiterate the original aim of hosting the event before the end of the year.

“We are working closing towards this aim with our partners and in liaison with the parties,” Nadal indicated, adding that Vimont would be taking this proposal to France’s “principal partners” after just completing his visit to the US. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)