26-04-2024 03:56 AM Jerusalem Timing

Netanyahu Rejects ’Dictates’ during French FM Visit

Netanyahu Rejects ’Dictates’ during French FM Visit

The Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected "international dictates" as France’s top diplomat visited, with Paris advocating a UN resolution laying out parameters for peace talks.

French FM Laurent Fabius (L), Zionist PM Benjamin Netanyahu (R)The Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected "international dictates" as France's top diplomat visited, with Paris advocating a UN resolution laying out parameters for peace talks.

With negotiations between the Zionist entity and the Palestinians stalled for more than a year, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Netanyahu on Sunday.

The separate meetings in Ramallah and Jerusalem were part of a regional tour by Fabius aimed at reviving peace talks.

France has argued in favor of a UN resolution that would guide negotiations leading to an independent Palestinian state and which could include a timeframe for talks.

Ahead of Fabius's arrival in Jerusalem, Netanyahu hit out at international diplomatic efforts to impose proposals which he said neglected to address vital Zionist security concerns, saying his occupation government would reject "international dictates".

In a joint news conference with Fabius after their meeting, Netanyahu said "peace will only come from direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions".

"It will not come from UN resolutions that are sought to be imposed from the outside," he said.

Netanyahu said a Palestinian recognition of the Jewish state as well as "iron-clad security arrangements on the ground in which the Zionist entity can defend itself" were requirements for peace.

Fabius sought to respond to such concerns, saying negotiations would ultimately be left to the Zionists and Palestinians, but that it did not prevent international support in the process.

"We must both guarantee Israel's security and at the same time give Palestinians the right to have a state," Fabius told journalists earlier at a joint news conference with Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki in Ramallah.

Malki welcomed France's efforts, but said he doubted a deal was possible with the current rightwing Israeli government, which he labeled "extremist".

Fabius sought to ease some Israeli concerns with the announcement that Abbas  had vowed any new Palestinian unity government should not include the Islamist group.

"(Abbas) told me this government of national unity could only include women and men who recognize Israel, renounce violence and who are in agreement with the principles of the (Mideast) Quartet," Fabius said at a press conference in Jerusalem after holding talks with Abbas in Ramallah.

In Cairo on Saturday, Fabius had warned that continued Zionist settlement building on land the Palestinians want for a future state would damage chances of a final deal.