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Israel: France Pursuing UN Initiative on Palestinians Behind Israel's Back

(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius' initiative to advance a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the UN Security Council was discussed during strategic consultations between Israel and France last week in Jerusalem. The French tried to advance such a resolution a few months ago, but it failed when the Palestinians rejected Paris' draft, which called for basing the borders of the Palestinian state along the 1967 lines and setting a timetable for finishing negotiations. Fabius recently agreed to an American request to put off the resolution until a nuclear agreement is reached with Iran, which is supposed to take place by June 30, but he is determined to bring the resolution to a Security Council vote by the end of September. The French have not held consultations with Israel on the initiative and never gave Israel a draft of the resolution, leading Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Nissim Ben-Sheetrit to protest at last week's meeting: "You are speaking with the whole world about your initiative, just not with us. You seem to have forgotten that we are also a party to this and that you ought to involve us, too."
2015-05-14 00:00:00
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