French minister changes tone about Palestinian state
FRANCE'S Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has distanced himself from earlier comments calling for international recognition of a Palestinian state before final peace negotiations.
PARIS — France’s Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has distanced himself from earlier comments calling for international recognition of a Palestinian state before final peace negotiations.
On February 21, Kouchner and his Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos called on the European Union to speed up Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations by amplifying their investment in the process.
In a joint-written column in the French daily Le Monde, they called on the EU to “take responsibility” for the region, since current efforts at a political accord “remain out of sync” with greater EU financial aid investment in the Palestinian Authority.
European sponsors for the Palestinian Authority have not been sufficiently “compensated by the opening of a real political perspective” of peace, said the foreign ministers, who outlined the need for a European-led “limited calendar of negotiations” toward a peace accord.
In a change of tone on February 22, Kouchner said a Palestinian state should be recognized following what he hopes will be greater European-led investment in the economy and security of the region, plus a proposal to have an EU-hosted conference on peace with Israel, Syria and Lebanon.
A spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said that Kouchner does not want to “impose a [Palestinian] state” before Israelis and Palestinians have come to a final agreement.
The spokesperson said Kouchner’s earlier call for a pre-emptive declaration of a Palestinian state was a point of “reflection, an idea,” and did not reflect the ministry’s official position.
Following a meeting in Paris between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on February 22, both leaders confirmed that an official recognition of a Palestinian state should not be made without first negotiating a peace accord with Israel.
“Negotiations first, the proclamation of a state after,” Abbas told French journalists following the meeting in Paris.
JTA
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