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Diplomats flock to Paris for summit on Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Envoys from over 70 countries, including the US, have gathered in Paris to discuss the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Israel’s Netanyahu has slammed the meet as “rigged” against his country.

The diplomats are expected to call for a two-state solution after the Sunday conference, according to a draft declaration seen by the DPAย news agency.

According to the report, the document calls for “two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”

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The US’ top diplomat John Kerry is expected to appear at the Paris summit, along with Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Envoys from Russia, China and other major powers are also among the attendees, according to a French diplomatic source. The conference follows a UN resolution last month, which decried Israel’s efforts to expand its settlement on occupied territories in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Paris summit ‘relic of the past’

The Sunday conference also sends a symbolic message to the incoming US administration led by Donald Trump, who vowed to provide even stronger support to Israel. Trump has picked hardliner David Friedman as his ambassador to the Jewish state.

Israel responded with outrage to the UN resolution and dismissed the Paris summit as “rigged by Palestinians.”

“This pushes peace backwards,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the conference earlier this week, hinting that his government was holding out for a US policy shift under Trump.

“It’s a relic of the past. It’s a last gasp of the past before the future sets in,” he added.

Breaking the cycle of violence

Neither Israel nor Palestine would attendย the Paris summit. French President Francois Hollande would meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to brief him on the outcome in the coming weeks. Netanyahu declined a similar offer, according to French diplomats.

In an article printed in “Le Monde” on Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France was not trying to impose a solution, but to stop an “infernal cycle of radicalization and violence” between the two sides.

Palestinians were seeing “their future state melt away” due to Jewish settlements, Ayrault said. In turn, Israelis suffered nearly daily violence by those who “harness frustrations to promote an agenda of hatred,” he added.

Source: Diplomats flock to Paris for summit on Israeli-Palestinian conflict | News | DW.COM | 15.01.2017

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