EU foreign policy chief at Paris summit: Status quo threatens Oslo Accords

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini exhorted world powers Friday to revive moribund peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, saying the status quo endangers the 1993 Oslo Accords.

Speaking in Paris at a peace summit organized by France, Mogherini said the European Union would help lay the groundwork for bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table, but had no intention of dictating an imposed solution.

The aim of the summit was not to impose terms, she said. But the EU was aiming to create conditions in which substantive negotiations could resume. Without peace talks, she said, the existing arrangements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority could be undermined.

“The policy of settlement expansion and demolitions, violence, and incitement tells us very clearly that the perspective that Oslo opened up is seriously at risk of fading away,” she told reporters.

Meanwhile, Hamas and three other Palestinian groups on Friday condemned Paris talks aimed at kickstarting peace negotiations with Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement have thrown their weight firmly behind the French initiative, which hosts representatives of some 25 countries, the United Nations, European Union and Arab League, on Friday.

Israel has rejected the initiative, calling for direct talks with the Palestinian Authority, while the Hamas terror group, which rules the Gaza Strip, condemned all talk of a negotiated settlement.

“We stress our rejection of this initiative and of every move which aims to return to futile negotiations,” Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups said in a statement Friday.

“The ideas presented by France in the form of an initiative represent a serious infringement on the shared national principles of Palestinians, especially the right of return,” read a joint statement from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Several million Palestinians live in the nations surrounding Israel, and Palestinians demand that they be allowed to return to their former land.

For Israelis, such a move poses an existential question to a Jewish state. Nonetheless, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he seeks a two-state solution, with a demilitarized Palestine that recognize Israel as the Jewish state.

Palestinians and Israelis are not represented in the Paris talks, which aim to lay the ground for a full-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, French President Francois Hollande urged Israel and the Palestinians to make a “courageous choice” for peace.

After decades of failed negotiations, few believe the climate is right to bring together Israelis and Palestinians for another shot at solving one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.

But senior Palestinian official Saeb Erakat said France’s bid offered “a flicker of hope” for a resolution to the conflict.