In Paris, Trump warned over Middle East peace Kuwait urges ‘final settlement’ of conflict
PARIS: France warned of “serious consequences” yesterday if Donald Trump recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as representatives from 70 countries met in Paris to try to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are attending the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed as “futile”. France called the gathering to reaffirm global support for a two-state solution to the seven-decade-old conflict, seen as increasingly reclusive.
The Palestinians have warned that Trump’s campaign pledge to move the US embassy to the contested city of Jerusalem could torpedo their chances of obtaining an independent state. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault warned such a move would have “extremely serious consequences” and predicted the incoming US leader would find it impossible to implement. “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,” he told France 3 TV.
In a final statement, the conference warned Israel and the Palestinians against “unilateral steps” on Jerusalem and borders that could threaten a two-state solution. It called on them to avoid steps that “prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final status issues, including, inter alia on Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees”. It also said the pre 1967 war borders should provide the basis for negotiations, Ayrault said.
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 the city is one of the thorniest issues in the conflict. President Francois Hollande told the gathering that the prospect of two independent states coexisting side-by-side was “not the dream of yesterday’s system”. “It remains the goal of the entire international community for the future,” Hollande said.
Netanyahu, who insists only direct talks with the Palestinians can bring peace, has dismissed the Paris meeting as “a last gasp of the past”. Yesterday he called it a “futile” exercise aimed at “imposing upon Israel conditions that are incompatible with our national needs”. Both Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have been invited to meet with Hollande to discuss the conclusions of the Paris talks. Abbas is expected to travel to Paris in the coming weeks but Netanyahu has rejected the offer, French diplomats said.
The conference is mainly symbolic, but comes at a crucial juncture for the Middle East, five days before Trump is sworn in as US president. 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”.
Israel, which is still seething over a critical UN resolution last month, fears the Paris meeting could produce measures hastily put to the Security Council before Trump takes over. The French have stressed they have no such plans. But EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the conference’s conclusions today, EU sources said. It was uncertain whether they would issue a statement, with Britain and some central European countries reluctant to upset the incoming Trump administration, a European diplomat said. US Secretary of State John Kerry, who rebuked Israel recently over its settler activity, joined the Paris talks on his farewell tour, along with delegates from the UN, EU and Arab League.
Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said the Paris conference should focus on an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conference should concentrate on reaching a “final settlement” for the conflict and not only continuing to manage it, Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled told the meeting.
This can be realized through incentives to the Israelis and the Palestinians to resume peace negotiations, creating favorable conditions and climate for interaction and economic, educational and vocational cooperation, he said. “This is likely to lay down bases for peace and dismiss all forms of extremism and violence,” he added.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled called for setting a time limit for completing the negotiations, as well as the immediate implementation of any agreement to be concluded for reaching a two-state solution based on relevant UN resolutions, mainly the UN General Assembly’s resolution 1994, and the Security Council’s resolutions 242, 338, 1397, 1515, 1850 and 2334, in addition to the Arab peace initiative, paving the way for establishing a Palestinian state on the pre-June 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
In order to achieve these goals, the concerned world’s bodies - especially the Middle East Quartet, the UNSC’s permanent members and the international bodies - have to play an effective role in supporting and implementing them, the Kuwaiti foreign minister noted. He expressed hope that the Quartet would include Arab members to make it more vital and effective.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled expressed deep concern over reports that the new US administration would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to “Occupied Jerusalem”, a matter that is most likely to undermine opportunities for peace and contradict with UNSC resolutions, especially no 478 that states: “Those states that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions from the Holy City.”
At the onset of the address, the chief Kuwaiti diplomat said that the world’s public opinion, especially in the Arab region, is closely following the conference and the regional and international momentum it could produce to resume the stalled peace process. Thus, participants in the Paris meeting should seek by all means that the event would lead to the activation of the outcome of previous conferences and initiatives that sought a solution to the Palestinian cause, such as Madrid 1991, Oslo 1993 and Camp David 2000, besides the several resolutions by the UN’s General Assembly and the UNSC on the major issue, he said.
The results of not applying UN resolutions and the non-commitment to what have been concluded in relevant international conferences have “aggravated the humanitarian tragedies of the unarmed Palestinian people, and heightened tension in the region”, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled stressed. Moreover, this has been reflected on international peace and stability, as the region started to see the emergence of further crises, such as extremism and terrorism that cannot be dissolved unless the root of the problem, namely the Palestinian issue, is settled, he noted.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said that this year marks the 69th anniversary of the Palestinians’ Nakba, suffering and pain, and the 50th anniversary of the occupation of Arab territories in 1967. He also highly appreciated the peace initiative offered by Hollande to save the Mideast peace process, recalling France’s stances in support of the Palestinian cause on international levels. — Agencies