France calls on the EU to pressure Israel to come to the table on Palestinian two-state solution
The aim of the conference, Barrot said, is 'to reverse the trend of what is happening in the region — mainly the erasure of the two-state solution, which has been for a long time the only solution that can bring peace and security in the region.'
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He urged the EC to call on Israel to lift a financial blockade on $2.32 billion he says the Israeli government owes the Palestinian Authority, stop settlement building in the West Bank, which threatens the territorial integrity of a future Palestinian state, and end the 'militarized' food delivery system in Gaza by the Israeli-backed US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has resulted in hundreds of killings.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the two-state solution on both nationalistic and security grounds. The United States has echoed its sentiment and on Monday called the conference 'unproductive and ill-timed.'
'The United States will not participate in this insult but will continue to lead real-world efforts to end the fighting and deliver a permanent peace,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. 'Our focus remains on serious diplomacy: not stage-managed conferences designed to manufacture the appearance of relevance.'
Ahead of the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would
France is now the biggest Western power and the only member of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations to recognize the state of Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.
At the conference opening, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa called for all countries that have not yet recognized Palestine as a state to do so 'without delay.'
'The path to peace begins by recognizing the state of Palestine and preserving it from destruction,' he said.
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The other issue being discussed at the conference is normalization between Israel and the Arab states in the region. Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign minister, stressed that normalization of relations with Israel 'can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.'
With global anger rising over desperately hungry people in Gaza starting to die from starvation. President Trump on Monday called for
Both Barrot and Farhan said Monday the United States is an essential actor in the region and that it was the president in January who secured the only cease-fire in the 21-month war.
'I am firmly in the belief that Trump's engagement can be a catalyst for an end to the immediate crisis in Gaza and potentially a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the long term,' Farhan said.
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