Itongadol.- The US has traditionally brokered all the past peace process in an attempt to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
France is scheduled to present its internationalized plan to jump start the frozen Israeli-Palestinian peace process to the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council when it meets in Brussel’s on Monday.
“I will present to my colleagues a draft initiative to relaunch the peace process,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at a press conference in Paris that included US Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.
“We all believe that we have to get out of this quagmire and try and set the necessary conditions for resuming the peace talks,” Ayrault said.
“That is why it is necessary to act and to truly launch some kind of momentum for hope in a region that badly needs it,” he added.
He explained that he had already received support for the initiative from the Arab League and planned to seek similar approval from Washington when he visits it next week.
A special French envoy Pierre Vimon is in Israel and the Palestinian territories this week to hold meetings with officials on the plan. On Monday he will present the initiative to Foreign Minister’s Director-General Dore Gold.
The US has traditionally brokered all the past peace process in an attempt to reach a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The last such effort feel apart in April 2014 and no new initiative has been launched since then.
Israel and the US have stood firm in their belief that the best path forward is direct talks between the two parties,
The Palestinians, however, have refused to engage in such talks and prefer instead a multilateral process such as the one proposed by the French.
It is lobbying countries to commit to a conference before May that would outline incentives and give guarantees for Israelis and Palestinians, seeking face-to-face talks before August. The process could also include United Nations Security Council resolution to cement the contours of the two state solution.
Mogherini said that the Quartet — the EU, the UN, Russia and the US — is working on a report that “is going in the same direction” as the French, but she did not specify what that meant.
“We will obviously coordinate action and steps so that the objective we share which is two states will be possibly achieved in the future,” she said.
The US has voiced support for the French efforts but has not yet endorsed the plan. Last fall the Obama administration said it did not expect to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by January 2017 when the president leaves office.
Last week the Wall Street Journal reporting that in spite of those earlier statements the White House was weighing a new peace initiative.
At Sunday’s press conference in Paris, Kerry said of the French plan, “We welcome anyone’s efforts to try and find a way forward .We remain deeply committed to a two state solution.”
“This moments is a difficult one because of the violence that has been taking place and there are not many people in Israel and the region itself, who have a belief in the possibility of a process,” Kerry said.
He noted that he has held conversations with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to find ways to change the situation.
“There is no way any one entity, one country or person can resolve this,” said Kerry and added “this will require the global community.”
He added that resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would remove a source of anger and contention from the region.