Paris: France said on Friday it was working with partners on a “final” diplomatic push to overcome the impasse between Israelis and Palestinians, including by setting a two-year time frame to end the conflict through a UN-backed resolution.
“If this final effort to reach a negotiated solution fails, then France will have to do what it takes by recognising without delay the Palestinian state,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament.
Lawmakers are set to hold a symbolic parliamentary vote on December 2 on whether the French government should recognise Palestine as a state, a move the Israeli regime’s Prime Minister has called a “grave mistake”. The vote has raised domestic political pressure for the government to be more active on the issue.
Fabius told deputies that, were they to adopt the motion, it would not change Paris’ immediate diplomatic stance.
But Fabius said France was working at the United Nations to get a resolution adopted that would set a two year time frame to reach a negotiated solution. He also proposed an international conference in parallel to pressure the two sides.
“At the United Nations, we are working with our partners to adopt a Security Council resolution to relaunch and conclude talks. A deadline of two years is the one most often mentioned and the French government can agree with this figure,” Laurent Fabius told MPs.
Palestine is planning to formally submit to the UN Security Council a draft resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territory in 2016.
Fabius did not specify when the conference, also mentioned late Thursday by French President Francois Hollande, might take place, nor did he say who might be invited.
Nevertheless, he said France hoped to bring together all the main players in the conflict, citing the European Union, the Arab League and all the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The minister has frequently said that France would recognise a Palestinian state “when the time comes”, arguing that a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict logically implies recognition of a Palestinian state.
Earlier Friday, French MPs held a two-hour debate on a non-binding, symbolic motion on whether to recognise Palestine. The motion will be voted on Tuesday and is expected to pass.
The vote comes hot on the heels of a similar resolution approved by British lawmakers on October 13, Spanish MPs on November 18 and the formal recognition by Sweden on October 30.
