Saturday, August 24, 2019

France's Macron Considers His Own Mideast Peace Plan


Macron: Not hanging my hopes on Trump's peace deal

Elad Benari,



French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that he did not hang his hopes on US President Donald Trump's peace deal for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Macron told Kan News that an agreement cannot be imposed on parties that do not want to negotiate.

"I am no longer waiting for President Trump's ‘Deal of the Century’. But I am continuing to work on suggestions in this regard," said the French President.

The peace initiative, partially unveiled at a Bahrain conference in June, dangled the prospect of pumping $50 billion-worth of investment into the Palestinian Authority economy.

Little is known about the political component of the peace plan, but Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and one of the authors of the plan, indicated in April that the plan would not focus on the two-state solution.

Earlier this week, Trump said he will likely wait until after the September elections in Israel to release his peace plan, but added that he could release some parts of the plan before the elections.

European countries have backed the PA and have stressed the importance of the “two-state solution” to the decades old conflict with Israel.

In April former European officials, including former prime ministers and foreign ministers, called on the European Union to reject Trump's proposed peace plan.


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