Abbas hails Paris declaration, says ready to resume talks

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomes the Paris peace conference’s final declaration, saying it “affirms” December’s UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements, the PA’s official Wafa news agency reports.

“Palestine is ready to resume negotiations on all final status issues, to create a full and lasting peace through the framework of an international mechanism and a specific timeframe along international parameters, the Madrid principles, the Arab Peace Initiative, Security Council Resolution 2334 and the Paris declaration,” Abbas says in a statement.

Abbas states the “necessity of following up the implementation” of Resolution 2334 and the peace conference’s declaration and will travel to Paris in the coming weeks for that purpose, and welcomes French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to Ramallah.

— Dov Lieber