Friday, September 25, 2020

Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany call for resumption of Israel-PA peace talks

Netanyahu and Abbas

The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt, France and Germany on Thursday urged Israel and Palestinian Arabs to engage in "credible dialogue" to restore "hope" to the peace process.

"Ending the stalemate in peace talks, the creation of political horizons and the restoration of hope through credible dialogue must be a priority," they said in a statement quoted by AFP.

The meeting comes after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain formally established full diplomatic ties with Israel, the third and fourth Arab states to do so after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.

The Israel-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace process has been frozen since 2014, when PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas breached conditions of talks that were ongoing at the time by unilaterally joining international treaties and conventions.

After Thursday's meeting, the ministers stressed "the urgency of the resumption of serious, meaningful and effective negotiations on the basis of international law and agreed parameters directly between the parties or under the UN umbrella."

"We call upon the parties to commit to past agreements and to resume credible dialogue on this basis," they said.

The meeting was also attended by the EU's envoy for the peace process.

The ministers also met Jordan's King Abdullah II, who reiterated a long-held position that ending the conflict required "a two-state solution with an independent (and) viable Palestinian state" based on pre-1967 borders, with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.

The ministers also commented on Israel agreeing to pause its move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as part of the deal to normalize ties with the UAE.

"This suspension should become permanent," they said, stressing the "importance" of the UAE and Bahrain deals.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted that the agreement with the UAE did not mark the end of his sovereignty plan, but is merely a temporary delay. US President Donald Trump, however, later asserted that Israel agreed not to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria as part of the agreement.

The EU, which was highly vocal in its criticism of Israel’s plans to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, welcomed the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates while restating its support for a two-state solution between Israel and the PA.