French initiative a 'test' of Israel's will to achieve peace, says envoy

France's special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process on Monday is expected to meet with officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Prime Minister's office to discuss plans to host an international peace conference by the end of the year, the Haaretz daily reports.


Speaking at a conference at the Macro Center for Political Economics and the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Sunday, French envoy Pierre Vimont said that "We want to revive the two-state solution in this window of opportunity and return it to the international agenda."

Haaretz quoted Vimont as saying that "the reality is that the two-state solution is slowly going away. For France, this is the most worrisome thing…that without saying so and with total silence, the two-state solution will go away with nothing to replace it."

Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.

France launched the effort earlier this year to host an international conference to revive peace talks.

It initially vowed to recognize a Palestinian state if talks failed, but French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault later said the recognition would not be automatic.
[ i24news.tv]
7/11/16