Last try at talks before Trump
• Diplomats meet in Paris to assert international support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
Diplomats from 70 countries have gathered in Paris to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts amid fears of an escalation of violence if US presidentelect Donald Trump implements a pledge to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are represented at the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed as “rigged” against the Jewish state.
Opening the meeting on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the international community wanted to “forcefully reiterate that the two-state solution is the only solution possible” to the seven-decades-old conflict.
Ayrault warned later on television that moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would have “extremely serious consequences” and predicted Trump would find it impossible to do.
Both Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, have been invited to meet President Francois Hollande to discuss the conclusions of the Paris talks. Abbas, who has backed the meeting, was expected to travel to Paris in the coming weeks but Netanyahu rejected the offer, French diplomats said.
The meeting is mainly symbolic, but comes at a crucial juncture for the Middle East, five days before Trump, who has vowed unstinting support for Israel, is sworn in as US president. Trump’s choice as ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a hardliner who says he looks forward to working from “Israel’s eternal capital, Jerusalem”.
Israel fears the conference could produce measures that could be put to the Security Council before Trump takes over. The French have insisted they have no such plans.
“France has no other desire than to serve peace, and there is no time to lose,” Ayrault said.
Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Tension is again running high after a wave of Palestinian attacks and amid Israel’s ongoing expansion of settlements on land the Palestinians want for their state.
On Saturday, Abbas warned that peace could be dealt a mortal blow if Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such a move would mark a radical departure from US policy and the UN’s position that the status of Jerusalem can be decided only in negotiations.
“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,” Abbas warned.
The Palestinians regard Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its capital.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who rebuked Israel recently over its settler activity on Palestinian territory, will join the talks, along with delegates from the UN, EU and Arab League. A draft conference communique called on Israel and the Palestinians to restate their support for two states and to refrain from “unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations”.
Netanyahu lashed out at the Paris meeting, saying only direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians could bring peace.
The conference comes hot on the heels of December’s landmark UN resolution criticising the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The vote passed after the Obama administration — in a parting shot at Netanyahu after years of frustrated mediation efforts — took the rare step of abstaining rather than using its veto to protect Israel.