French President Francois Hollande has dramatically sharpened his tone on Israel's settlement policies, demanding a "complete halt" to construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
In a speech after talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas, the French leader made an unequivocal demand for Israel to stop building on land seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.
"For peace and in order to reach an agreement, France demands a full and complete halt to settlement activity because it undermines the two-state solution," Hollande said on his first official visit to the Palestinian territories.
"Settlement activity complicates the negotiations and makes it difficult to achieve a two-state solution," he said, a day after talks in Israel focused heavily on the Iran nuclear issue.
Welcoming Hollande onto the red carpet as the two national flags flew overhead at his Muqataa presidential headquarters, Abbas hailed his "historic visit" before the two went into an hour-long meeting followed by a working lunch.
Last week, Israeli plans to build another 20,000 new settler homes sparked the resignation of the entire Palestinian negotiating team, although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly rescinded the move to avoid a major fallout with the international community.
Despite the crisis, Abbas on Sunday told AFP that peace talks with Israel would continue for the full nine months agreed with Washington -- "regardless of what happens on the ground".
He also said the negotiators would continue in their role until further notice.
"We have committed to continue the negotiations for nine months, regardless of what happens on the ground," Abbas told AFP in an exclusive interview.
Before meeting Abbas, Hollande acknowledged there had been little progress in the talks, urging the sides to drive the US-brokered process forward.
"The status quo is not the solution," he said while visiting a church in Jerusalem's Old City on Monday morning.
"Out of nine months, three have already passed without any real progress. We need to quicken the process, to speed it up."
But Hollande also made clear that France expected "efforts" from the Palestinians.
And he said a "realistic solution" must be found for the thorny question of Palestinian refugees who fled or were driven out of their homes during the war that accompanied Israel's emergence as a state in 1948.
Share
