French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Marc Ayrault addresses delegates at the opening of the Middle East peace conference in Paris on January 15, 2017/AFP
PARIS, France, Jan 15 – A conference for peace in the Middle East on Sunday warned Israel and the Palestinians against taking “unilateral steps” on Jerusalem and on borders that could imperil a negotiated solution to their seven-decade conflict.
Around 70 countries attending talks in Paris called on the two sides to avoid moves that “prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final status issues, including inter alia, Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees.”
The participants in the conference “will not recognise” such steps, they warned in a statement.
They also agreed that the basis for the negotiations should be the 1967 borders, before Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a press conference.
Israel and the Palestinians: peace efforts/AFP
France organised the gathering to reaffirm global support for a Palestinian state existing alongside an Israeli state — a scenario the Palestinians fear could be jeopardised by Donald Trump’s incoming US administration.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians attended the conference, which the Palestinians supported but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “futile”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, attending the talks on his farewell tour, said he had negotiated to prevent Israel being treated unfairly.
“We did what was necessary to have a balanced resolution,” Kerry told reporters and confirmed he had spoken to Netanyahu during the meeting to reassure him.
Israel’s controversial wall separating the Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov (foreground) in the northern area of east Jerusalem and the Palestinian neighborhood of al-Ram (background) in the West Bank/AFP
Kerry noted that leading Arab nations had endorsed the US outline of a solution which insists on the need for two states, one of them Israel recognised as a Jewish state.
The Palestinians welcomed the closing statement, with Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Secretary General Saeb Erekat saying it had “stressed the need to end the Israeli occupation”.
Israel though said the conference, and others like it, made peace harder to find “since they encourage the Palestinians to continue to refuse direct talks with Israel”.
1967 borders
Ayrault said the conference participants had set out the 1967 frontiers as the cornerstone of final-status negotiations.
Protestors demonstrate during a rally in Paris against the Middle East peace conference taking place in the French capital on January 15, 2017/AFP
“The basis is the 1967 borders and the major UN resolutions,” he said.
The conference comes as Trump’s campaign pledge to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem sparks deep concerns for peace in the Middle East.
Ayrault said such a move, which would support Israel’s claim that Jerusalem is its capital, would be a “provocation”.
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has warned it would “destroy” peace efforts.
The Palestinians regard Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its capital.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues in the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who insists only direct talks with the Palestinians can bring peace, dismissed the Paris meeting as “a last gasp of the past” and a “futile” exercise/AFP
“When you are president of the United States, you cannot take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace,” Ayrault told French TV.
President Francois Hollande told the gathering that the prospect of two independent states coexisting side-by-side — seen as increasingly elusive “remains the goal of the entire international community”.
But Netanyahu, who insists only direct talks with the Palestinians can bring peace, said before the meeting it was “a last gasp of the past”.
Abbas has accepted Hollande’s offer to come to Paris to discuss the conclusions of the talks but Netanyahu has refused, French diplomats said.
Trump pledge
The conference was mainly symbolic, but came at a crucial juncture for the Middle East, five days before Trump is sworn in as president.
US Secretary of State John Kerry noted that leading Arab nations had endorsed the US outline of a solution which insists on the need for two states, one of them Israel recognised as a Jewish state /AFP
Trump has said “there’s nobody more pro-Israeli than I am” and his choice for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a hardliner who says he looks forward to working from “Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”.
The conference came a month after a landmark UN Security Council resolution criticising Israeli settler activity that outraged Netanyahu.
The vote passed after the Obama administration in a parting shot at Netanyahu took the rare step of abstaining rather than using its veto to protect Israel.
EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the Paris conference’s conclusions on Monday.
A European diplomat said it was uncertain whether they would issue a statement, with Britain and some central European countries reluctant to upset the Trump administration.
Britain only attended the Paris talks as an observer and so did not sign the statement.
Israeli-Palestinian efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Tensions have spiralled recently following a wave of Palestinian attacks and inflammatory rhetoric on both sides.
Israel’s ongoing expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian territory is also seen as a major obstacle to a resolution.
Abbas warned starkly on Saturday about the consequences of an embassy move.
“Any attempts at legitimising the illegal Israeli annexation of the city will destroy the prospects of any political process, bury the hopes for a two-state solution and fuel extremism, in our region, as well as worldwide,” he said.
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