Kerry and Abbas to meet in Paris, discuss peace talks
July 19, 2016United States Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Paris this week for talks with Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas on peace prospects with Israel, the State Department said Tuesday.
The meeting with Abbas will be the top U.S. diplomat’s second stop on a global tour that will kick off late Thursday.
Kerry will discuss with the Palestinian leader “ongoing efforts to advance a two-state solution,” the State Department said in a statement quoted by AFP.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process collapsed two years ago, and progress currently appears unlikely before President Barack Obama’s final term ends in January.
But France is now at the center of a push to convince the sides to restart talks, having in June convened a Paris meeting of world powers – without Israel or the Palestinians – to work toward organizing an international conference to reboot talks by the end of the year.
After June’s meeting Kerry was lukewarm concerning the prospects of a conference. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has dismissed the French initiative entirely, saying he only way to achieve peace is through direct talks with the PA.
Abbas has welcomed the move and earlier this week urged the African Union member states and its officials to support it.
At the same time, a recent report said the PA may seek again to promote a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli “settlements” as part of its unilateral efforts against Israel in international institutions.
The Middle East diplomatic quartet – the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States – recently released a report in which it urged Israel to stop construction in Judea and Samaria, while also calling on Palestinians to cease incitement to violence.
The report has been rejected by both sides, with Netanyahu saying it equating between Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria and the Palestinian incitement to terror. The PA argues that the report failed to single out Israeli policies as the leading cause of the violence.
Before talks with Abbas, who Kerry met with in Amman in February, the U.S. diplomat will stop Friday in Vienna to help kick off high-level talks on combating climate change.
He will travel next week to Vientiane, Laos, for the annual conference of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN).
He will meet at the ASEAN event with leaders from Southeast Asia and China concerning disputes related to territory and maritime security in the South China Sea.
Kerry will end his trip in Manila, where he will meet with newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte to discuss the “full range of our cooperation with the new administration,” the statement said.
AFP contributed to this report.
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