France puts Israel-Palestine conflict back in focus
PARIS, 3 Jun - (ANA) - France is hosting foreign ministers from major powers to put Israel-Palestinian peacemaking back on the international agenda and to bring the two sides back to direct talks by the end of the year. With US efforts to broker a deal on a Palestinian state on Israel-occupied land in deep freeze for two years, France has lobbied the key players in the peace process to attend the Paris conference. Neither Israel nor the Palestinians have been invited. In his opening speech on Friday, French President Francois Hollande urged Israelis and Palestinians to make a "courageous choice for peace", adding that the solution had to involve the "whole region". "The discussion on the conditions for peace between Israelis and Palestinians must take into account the entire region," he said. "The threats and priorities have changed. The changes make it even more urgent to find a solution to the conflict, and this regional upheaval creates new obligations for peace. We must prove it to the international community." France has grown frustrated over the absence of progress towards a "two-state solution" since the collapse of the last round of talks in April 2014, arguing that letting the status quo prevail is like "waiting for a powder keg to explode". The gathering of ministers in Paris includes the Middle East Quartet - which comprises the US, Russia, the EU and the UN - as well as the Arab League, the UN Security Council and about 20 countries. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French foreign minister, said direct talks between the two parties "do not work". "Currently everything is blocked. We don't want to act in the place of the Israelis and Palestinians but we want to help them," he told France Info radio. The Paris meeting, the first international conference on the issue since Annapolis in the US in 2007, will not touch on any of the chronic core differences between the two sides. Its initial focus is to reaffirm existing international texts and resolutions that are based on achieving a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip co-existing with Israel. The Palestinians say Israeli settlement expansion in occupied territory is diminishing any prospect for the viable state they seek, with a capital in Arab East Jerusalem. Israel has demanded tighter security measures and a crackdown on Palestinians it claims attacked Israeli civilians. It also says Jerusalem is Israel's indivisible capital and cannot be divided. "The Palestinian leadership is welcoming this Paris conference," said Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from al-Ram, a Palestinian town north of Jerusalem.(ANA)

FA/ANA/3 June 2016-------