French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier met with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Queira on Wednesday morning, for talks on a possible multinational presence in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli withdrawal from the area.
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Following the meeting, Barnier told reporters that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Muqata headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah were "inappropriate for him [considering] what he represents." Barnier met with Arafat at the Muqata on Tuesday.
"We think that this situation should come to an end because he is the legitimate and elected president of the Palestinian people, and this is another aim of my visit," said Barnier, who expressed support Tuesday for a multinational force in Gaza.
The French foreign minister voiced support for the deployment of "an international presence," including European observers, in the Gaza Strip after the planned pullout, but also called on the Palestinians to take steps against violence.
"The Palestinians have to put an end to acts of violence and punish those responsible," Bernier said Tuesday.
"Israel also must take some measures such as to stop building the wall and to stop the acts of demolition," he said, referring to the West Bank separation fence and the destruction of Palestinian homes in army raids against militants.
Barnier also called for a revival of the internationally-sponsored road map to Middle East peace. He said France backed Egypt's security plan for Gaza, which includes a proposed cease-fire and the dispatch of Egyptian experts to train and help revamp Palestinian security services before an Israeli withdrawal to keep militants in check.
"We have to seize every opportunity - the Egyptian efforts and the Gaza withdrawal - so we can return to the 'road map' to establish two states that live next to each other and enjoy peace," Bernier said.
Constant violence has stalled the road map, a peace plan based on mutual Israeli-Palestinian confidence-building measures backed by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia.
At a news conference Tuesday, Arafat promised to "exert maximum efforts to ensure the success" of the Egyptian proposal. He said the Palestinians had welcomed Cairo's ideas on "reorganizing the security forces and strengthening them."
Barnier had been due to visit Israel after meeting Arafat, but Israel, which has urged the international community to shun the Palestinian leader it accuses of fomenting violence, scheduled a separate visit by the French minister for September instead.
Arafat has denied encouraging bloodshed in nearly four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon recently approved a plan to evacuate of all settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in the northern West Bank by the end of 2005.
Sharon has fuelled Palestinian suspicions about the plan by coupling the proposal with a pledge to hold on to parts of the West Bank permanently.
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