President Mahmoud Abbas hosted Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Samih Shukri in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday, according to a statement released by WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.
The Egyptian minister confirmed the continuation of intensive political coordination with the Palestinians in supporting the French-led peace initiative and preparing for a multilateral international peace conference expected to be held in Paris before the end of this year, the statement said.
Abbas also expressed his appreciation for Egyptian President Abd al Fattah al-Sisi’s continued support of the Palestinian cause.
The two reportedly agreed on continuing with talks in upcoming weeks as a follow-up to the meeting held in Ramallah and to center the discussions on the Palestinian right to establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, WAFA reported.
The Egyptian peace talk proposal is focused on renewing peace negotiations by organizing direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian parties, while initiating meetings between Palestinian political factions in an attempt to spearhead a reconciliation agreement between Palestinian groups.
The Egyptian leadership has also expressed its support for the French-led multilateral peace conference expected to be held by the end of this year.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has staunchly rejected the French initiative, as Director-General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry Dore Gold earlier this month equated the multilateral initiative to a colonial project being enforced on the Middle East.
Instead, Israeli leaders have voiced their support for al-Sisi’s trilateral initiative which would see Palestinian and Israeli leaders meeting face to face to negotiate a peace deal.
The Palestinian Authority, however, has expressed support for the French initiative, and in April shelved the submission of a new anti-settlement resolution to the UN out of fear that doing so could thwart progress of new French proposals.
Newly-appointed Israeli Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman and Netanyahu issued a joint statement in May in support of reviving the Arab Peace Initiative (API) for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which called for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territory in exchange for full normalization of ties with Arab states.
Netanyahu and Lieberman also reiterated support for al-Sisi's initiative, and threw their support behind the two-state solution.
All past efforts towards peace negotiations have failed to end the decades-long Israeli military occupation or bring Palestinians closer to an independent contiguous state.
The most recent spate of negotiations led by the US collapsed in April 2014.
Israel claimed the process failed because the Palestinians refused to accept a US framework document outlining the way forward, while Palestinians pointed to Israel's ongoing settlement building and the government's refusal to release veteran prisoners.
Ma'an News
Source: http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=772051
