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Last update - 11:57 25/11/2009
French FM: Coming days are a test for Israel
By Haaretz Service and DPA
Tags: Israel settlements 

Israel needs quickly to advance the peace process, visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday as he began a round of meetings with Israeli officials.

"The coming days are a test for the Israeli government, since time is not on the side of both parties [to the Israel-Palestinian peace process]," Israeli media quoted Kouchner as saying in a meeting with Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman.

Kouchner arrived in Israel after meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday, where he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks from the point they reached when suspended one year ago, rather than beginning from scratch.
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The French foreign minister also met with chairwoman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni, who referred to the controversial plan to construct 900 new homes in the Gilo neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

"Gilo is part of the Israeli consensus...and it is important to understand this for all discussions of borders in any future agreement," said Livni.

Gilo, where some 40,000 Israelis live, was built on West Bank land Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed as part of Jerusalem.

Livni and Kouchner also discussed Iran's nuclear aspirations. "The time has come for harsh sanctions against Iran," said Livni. "The international community must be clear on this, and all dialogue must have a time frame."

Livni is expected to make an official visit to Paris in early December.

He also called on Abbas to remain in office, saying his leadership of the Palestinian people was indispensable to the success of the peace process.

Abbas said last week he would not contest the next Palestinian Presidential elections, after Israel refused his demand to freeze settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank as a condition for resuming peace talks.

Kouchner last week said that France fears Israel no longer desires a Middle East peace deal, adding that Paris remained deeply opposed to settlement building in the West Bank.

"What really hurts me, and this shocks us, is that before there used to be a great peace movement in Israel. There was a left that made itself heard and a real desire for peace," Kouchner said.

"It seems to me, and I hope that I am completely wrong, that this desire has completely vanished, as though people no longer believe in it," he added.

When Sarkozy took office in 2007 he worked hard to improve sometimes frosty French relations with Israel, believing Paris would never be a credible partner in Middle East peace talks if it was seen as biased in favor of the Arab world.

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      1.   Livni says it all 12:08  |  qahuah 18/11/09
      2.   Bibi acts as a spoiled child 12:14  |  ron 18/11/09
      3.   Yes, the coming days are a test for Israel 12:46  |  Moshe 18/11/09
      4.   EVERY DAY is a test for Israel 12:49  |  yona 18/11/09
      5.   I agree 12:55  |  Adrian 18/11/09
      6.   and harsher sanctions to Israel 13:39  |  ezra 18/11/09
      7.   When is France going to be put to test ? 13:40  |  Absolute Sweden 18/11/09
      8.   French FM visiting Middle East 14:28  |  Harold 18/11/09
      9.   Livni Says There Is Consensus 15:39  |  Yaakov Sullivan 18/11/09
      10.   enlightening Adrian 15:50  |  Arab Jew 18/11/09
      11.   There was "a great peace movement", but Arafat destroyed it. 16:14  |  David Plane 18/11/09
      12.   Right string, wrong yoyo. 17:02  |  American Observer 18/11/09
      13.   About rights and legitimacy. 17:05  |  B. Gold 18/11/09
      14.   Sermons et pontifications 17:28  |  Sam Soul 18/11/09
      15.   reciprocity 17:52  |  Peleg 18/11/09
      16.   Support a Free Palestine 17:56  |  Vladek 18/11/09
      17.   To Adrian #4-:The reason why Israelis do NOT 18:03  |  Believe 18/11/09
      18.   FM Kouchner should know 19:37  |  Donatus 18/11/09
      19.   Peering in the wrong end of the telescope 20:22  |  Mark Lincoln 18/11/09
      20.   The location of President Sarkozy is [CENSORED] 20:24  |  Mark Lincoln 18/11/09
      21.   #2 Moshe.Israel has been tested 23:59  |  Ron 18/11/09
      22.   #16 Believe.Israel may be commiting a war crime in Gaza 00:53  |  Ron 20/11/09
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