Daily Times

PARIS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a multilateral French peace initiative as he met his French counterpart on Monday, offering instead to hold direct talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Paris.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he would speak to President Francois Hollande about Netanyahu’s proposal. “It can still be called the French initiative because you would host this genuine effort for peace,” Netanyahu said. “But here’s the difference: I will sit alone, directly, with president Abbas in the Elysee (French presidential) palace or anywhere else that you choose. Every difficult issue will be on the table.”

Netanyahu, who has repeatedly expressed his opposition to the French proposal, said “this initiative can still take place in Paris, because that would be a marvellous place to sign a peace accord. It’s a marvellous place anyway.” Valls is visiting Israel and the Palestinian territories to advance his country’s plan to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. He is due to hold talks in Ramallah on Tuesday with Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah.

Abbas has welcomed the French initiative to hold a meeting of foreign ministers from a range of countries on June 3, without the Israelis and Palestinians present. Another conference would then be held in the autumn, with the Israelis and Palestinians in attendance. The goal is to eventually restart negotiations that would lead to a Palestinian state. Netanyahu has regularly called for direct talks and offered to meet Abbas, and he reiterated his argument on Monday that peace would not be achieved though “international diktats.”

Palestinian leaders say years of negotiations with Israel have not ended its occupation and have pursued a strategy of diplomacy at international bodies. Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014. An upsurge in violence since October has killed 204 Palestinians and 28 Israelis, though the unrest has steadily declined in recent weeks. Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say.