Major powers to warn on Middle East peace

MAJOR powers were to send a message to US president-elect Donald Trump yesterday that a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians was the only way forward, and warned that his plan to move the US embassy to Jerusalem could derail peace efforts.

About 70 countries, including key European and Arab states as well as the permanent members of the UN Security Council, were due in Paris for a meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier rejected as “futile” and “rigged”. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians were to be represented at the talks.

But, just five days before Trump is sworn in, the conference provided a platform for countries to send a strong signal to the future American leader.

Trump has pledged to pursue more pro-Israeli policies and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, where it has been for 68 years, to Jerusalem, all but enshrining the city as Israel’s capital despite international objections.

“It would be a unilateral decision that could escalate tensions on the ground,” a senior French diplomat said.

France has said the meeting does not intend to impose anything on Israel or the Palestinians and that, ultimately, only direct negotiations between the two can resolve the conflict.

“There is no time to waste,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told delegates at the opening of the allday conference.

“We are not sheltered from an explosion of violence.”

Palestinian President Authority Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that he had written to Trump warning that a move to Jerusalem would kill off the peace process and strip the US of its role as honest broker – and could lead to the Palestinians going back on their recognition of Israel. — Reuters