Il existe un "vrai différend politique" entre Israël et la France sur la question de la colonisation, a déclaré mardi le chef de la diplomatie française Bernard Kouchner, en soulignant la nécessité d'oeuvrer pour éviter une démission du dirigeant palestinien Mahmoud Abbas.
Entre le Premier ministre israélien Benjamin Netanyahu, attendu mercredi à Paris, et le président Nicolas Sarkozy, "il y a un vrai différend politique". "Nous pensons toujours que le gel des colonisations, c'est-à-dire ne pas coloniser pendant qu'on parle (de parvenir à la paix), serait absolument indispensable", a souligné le ministre sur France Inter.
Nicolas Sarkozy recevra Benjamin Netanyahu mercredi à 17H30, selon l'agenda publié par l'Elysée.
"Il faut discuter et faire en sorte que le processus politique reparte", a ajouté Bernard Kouchner, en rappelant qu'il se rendrait prochainement dans les Territoires palestiniens et en Israël. Il a déploré qu'il n'y ait plus dans ce pays d'"aspiration à la paix". "Il me semble, et j'espère me tromper, que cette aspiration a disparu comme si on n'y croyait plus", a-t-il dit.
A propos du président de l'Autorité palestinienne, Bernard Kouchner a souligné qu'il fallait tout faire pour éviter qu'il ne quitte ses fonctions.
"Il faut reparler avec Mahmoud Abbas, et que d'abord le président palestinien ne démissionne pas comme il a menacé" de le faire, a-t-il estimé.
Mahmoud Abbas a annoncé jeudi qu'il ne briguerait pas de nouveau mandat lors des élections générales palestiniennes, convoquées pour le 24 janvier, en raison du blocage du processus de paix. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., Nov 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded an unusually low-key U.S. visit on Tuesday voicing confidence that his White House talks had helped secure Israel and promote peace efforts.
Netanyahu, whose ties with Washington have been strained by Israeli settlement expansion on occupied West Bank land where Palestinians seek statehood, met U.S. President Barack Obama with little notice and minimal media exposure on Monday evening.
"It was a very focused and very positive conversation," he told reporters before departing. "This conversation dealt with the range of subjects that are important for the security of Israel, and for our joint efforts to advance peace."
He did not elaborate, saying only: "I think this visit will turn out to have been very important."
Mahmoud Abbas, the U.S.-sponsored Palestinian president, has accused Washington of failing to press Israel strongly for a freeze on settlements as mandated by a 2003 peace "road map" and says he has no desire to run for re-election in January.
This has put a further obstacle in the path of Obama's bid to promote talks between Netanyahu's rightist government and a Palestinian movement riven between Abbas's secular rule and Islamist Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and opposes coexistence with the Jewish state.
Yuli Edelstein, an Israeli cabinet minister accompanying Netanyahu, said in a radio interview that the White House meeting had included a discussion of Iran, whose nuclear program and support for Hamas and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas are cited by Israel as obstacles to peacemaking.
Israel backs efforts by the United States and other powers to talk Tehran into curbing nuclear projects with bomb-making potential. But the Israelis, assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arms, have not ruled out preemptive military action.
FRANCE SAYS 'REAL DIFFERENCE OF OPINION'
Netanyahu has proposed temporarily limiting building in West Bank settlements to 3,000 houses. He has said East Jerusalem, also captured in a 1967 war and annexed as Israel's capital in a move not recognized abroad, must be kept out of the equation.
"My goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations. My goal is to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians -- and soon," Netanyahu told a conference of American Jewish leaders on Monday.
"Let's get on with it. Let's move," he said, an exhortation cautiously echoed by the Obama administration in easing its public pressure on Israel over the settlements.
Palestinians want to base their own future capital in Jerusalem and see the settlements -- which the World Court has branded illegal -- as an obstacle to territorial sovereignty.
Israel's posture drew a rebuke from France, where Netanyahu stops on Wednesday for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Asked about the settlements in an interview, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said: "There is a real difference of opinion on this (between Sarkozy and Netanyahu)."
Kouchner, who called for Abbas to stay on, deplored what he described as the ebbing of popular Israeli desires for peace.
"What really hurts me, and this shocks us, is that before there used to be a great peace movement in Israel," he told France Inter radio.
"It seems to me, and I hope that I am completely wrong, that this desire has completely vanished, as though people no longer believe in it." _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered last week to host an international summit in Paris to break the deadlock in the Middle East peace process. Sarkozy first raised the proposal in his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, then with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas rejected the offer, though the U.S. administration's position remains unclear.
Netanyahu did, however, express anger at French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner's remarks on Tuesday that Israelis' desire for peace had waned.
French officials said that during the meeting with Netanyahu, Sarkozy had several ideas for restarting the stalled negotiations. One proposal was to hold a summit on the Mideast peace process attended by Netanyahu, Abbas, Assad, Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. Representatives of the Quartet of Mideast negotiators - the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia - would also take part.
At his meeting with Sarkozy, Netanyahu did not reject the possibility of attending the summit, and on Thursday the French president discussed the proposal in a telephone conversation with Abbas. A day later, Sarkozy presented the idea to Assad during the Syrian leader's visit to Paris.
Netanyahu found a warmer welcome in Paris after his reportedly tense visit to Washington, and the Prime Minister's Bureau was eager to ensure reporters that the latest encounter went smoothly.
Nonetheless, French diplomats at the meeting said that there were a few ripples at the Elysee Palace. Whereas during their last meeting, Sarkozy complained to Netanyahu over Avigdor Lieberman's allegedly inappropriate remarks and urged him to oust the foreign minister, this time it was Netanyahu criticizing Kouchner.
A day before Netanyahu's arrival in Paris, Kouchner told the radio station France Inter that it seemed that the Israeli public's desire for peace "has completely vanished, as though people no longer believe in it."
Netanyahu and his associates perceived the remarks as personal slights of the prime minister. The French diplomats said Netanyahu protested bitterly over Kouchner's comments, and Israeli officials said National Security Advisor Uzi Arad asked his French counterpart Jean-David Levitte that Kouchner not participate in the meeting with Netanyahu. The Prime Minister's Bureau played down the reports, saying that Netanyahu merely sought a private audience with Sarkozy. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called Monday for the rapid resumption of negotiations that will lead to a Palestinian state.
Following a meeting of the two leaders in Paris, Sarkozy said that he would work for the creation of "a modern, viable Palestinian state" which, like Israel, would have Jerusalem as its capital and which would be drawn up according to the borders of 1967.
In addition, any solution to the Mideast crisis must also include a discussion on the fate of the Palestinian refugees, the French president said.
Advertisement
The created Palestinian state must be "modern, viable, democratic," Sarkozy added.
However, he played down a proposal by his Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, who said in a weekend interview that "one could envisage the rapid proclamation of a Palestinian state and its immediate recognition by the international community."
Such a move, said Sarkozy, would be impractical without internationally-recognized borders. "We have always said we want a viable Palestinian state," he said.
Abbas said a unilateral declaration of statehood would be undertaken only "in accordance with European nations and the United States."
Abbas also said that it was important to overcome the rift between his government and the Hamas leadership in the Gaza Strip, and that the only way out of the rift would be democratic elections.
Sarkozy said he would discuss the situation in the Mideast with US President Barack Obama at the end of March, when he and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, travel to Washington on a state visit.
"We are working hand in hand with the Americans, he said. _________________ A la guerre comme a la guerre èëè âòîðàÿ ðåäàêöèÿ Çàáóãîðíîâà
FAQ
