French envoy in Egypt to push Paris peace initiative

A senior French envoy held talks in Egypt on Thursday on his country’s bid to organize an international conference later this year to revive the moribund Palestinian-Israeli peace process, officials said.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative collapsed in April 2014.

French envoy Pierre Vimont met Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry for talks on future steps he will take to prepare for the conference, a foreign ministry statement said.

The Arab League said its secretary general Nabil Elaraby had similar talks with Vimont.

Earlier this month, representatives from 28 Arab and Western countries, the Arab League, European Union and the United Nations met in Paris to discuss ways in which the international community could help advance the Palestinian-Israel peace process.

Neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives were invited to attend the meeting, which aimed to lay the ground for a full-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year.

The Palestinians have welcomed the French bid but Israel has said the initiative would go down in history as having “pushed peace further away.”

Meanwhile in Israel, Egyptian ambassador Hazem Khairat said Thursday that Cairo is willing to help create an “appropriate Palestinian environment” to facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

During a speech at the Herzliya Conference, Khairat hailed the current French peace initiative “as contributing to the framework of international action to this end.” A ministerial meeting in Paris earlier this month, he said, “has certainly made a new step toward peace.”