Paris: Diplomats from 70 countries gathered in Paris on Sunday to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts amid fears of a new escalation if Donald Trump implements a pledge to recognise occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are represented at the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed as “rigged” against the Jewish state.
Opening the meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the international community wanted to “forcefully reiterate that the two-state solution is the only solution possible” to the seven-decade-old conflict.
In a TV interview later, Ayrault warned that moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem would have “extremely serious consequences” and predicted Trump would find it impossible to do so.
“When you are President of the United States, you cannot take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace,” he told France 3 TV.
Both Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas have been invited to meet with President Francois Hollande to discuss the conclusions of the Paris talks.
Abbas, who has backed the meeting, is expected to travel to Paris in the coming weeks but Netanyahu rejected the offer, French diplomats said.
The meeting is mainly symbolic, but comes at a crucial juncture for the Middle East, five days before Trump, who has vowed unstinting support for Israel, is sworn in as US president.
Israel fears the conference could produce measures that could be put to the Security Council before Trump takes over.
The French have insisted they have no such plans.
“France has no other desire than to serve peace, and there is no time to lose,” Ayrault said.
Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Tensions are again running high after a wave of Palestinian attacks and Israel’s ongoing expansion of colonies on land the Palestinians want for their state.
On Saturday, Abbas warned that peace could be dealt a mortal blow if Trump moves the US embassy from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, recognising the contested city as Israel’s capital as he indicated during campaigning.
Such a move would mark a radical departure from US policy and the United Nations’ position that the status of occupied Jerusalem can only be decided in negotiations.
“Any attempts at legitimising the illegal Israeli annexation of the city will destroy the prospects of any political process, bury the hopes for a two-state solution, and fuel extremism in our region, as well as worldwide,” Abbas warned during a visit to the Vatican.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, who rebuked Israel recently over its colonisation activity on Palestinian territory, will join the talks on his farewell tour, along with delegates from the UN, European Union and Arab League.
A draft conference communique called on Israel and the Palestinians to restate their support for two states and to refrain from “unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of final status negotiations.”
Netanyahu has lashed out at the Paris meeting, saying only direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians can bring peace.
Israel fears being further isolated by the conference, which comes hot on the heels of a landmark December UN resolution criticising the expansion of Israeli colonies in the West Bank.
The vote passed after the Obama administration — in a parting shot at Netanyahu after years of frustrated mediation efforts — took the rare step of abstaining rather than using its veto to protect Israel.
Explaining the US abstention, Kerry warned last month that settlement expansion, terrorism and violence were “increasingly cementing an irreversible one-state reality” that would never yield real peace.
Trump, who had urged the US to veto the text, has said “there’s nobody more pro-Israeli than I am”.
His choice for ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, is a hardliner who says he looks forward to working from “Israel’s eternal capital, [occupied] Jerusalem.”
The city’s status is one of the thorniest issues.
The Palestinians regard Israeli-annexed occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, while Israel proclaims the entire city as its capital.
