French president: Trump might sink chances for peace conference
US Secretary of State John Kerry told Maariv: "I do not know what will happen next regarding the conference."
By GIDEON KUTS / MA'ARIVUpdated: NOVEMBER 17, 2016 22:50France seeks to revive Israel-Palestinian talks in Paris, seeking two-state solution
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post's sister paper Maariv, French President Francois Hollande said the Paris peace conference scheduled to take place in December is in jeopardy after Donald Trump's victory in the US Presidential election."The chances to hold the peace conference in Paris are not good," Hollande said while attending the Marrakech Climate Change Conference."However, the problem is not only the cancelling of the conference," he argued. "If Trump keeps to his word, the international community cannot come together to support the peace process. The very commitment to peace and the future of the process will be in danger."The French Foreign Ministry denied the comments ever occurred.US Secretary of State John Kerry told Maariv: "I do not know what will happen next regarding the conference."Before the US election results, Israel had feared that the US administration would use its remaining weeks to not only participate in the international conference, but to refuse to oppose a possible resolution against Israel at the United Nations Security Council.However, now it seems that Trump's victory is a major disruption to those plans.Palestinians earlier in November welcomed the French plan, however Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the visit of French envoy Pierre Vimont by calling on Abbas to immediately hold direct negotiations with him instead.Abbas has persistently rejected such calls, stating that Israel must halt all settlement activity and Jewish building in east Jerusalem before such talks could be held.Israel had warned France that their plan only emboldens Abbas to continue to refuse to negotiate. “True progress in the peace process and achieving an agreement will come only through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and that any other initiative only pushes the region further away from this process,” Israeli envoys Brig.-Gen (retired) Jacob Nagel and Yitzhak Molho told Vimont during his visit.Just one day earlier Vimont had called on Israel to participate in the conference as a sign of its commitment to peace with the Palestinians.But Nagel and Molho made it clear to Vimont that this would not happen.