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Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni shaking hands with her Moroccan counterpart Mohammed Benaissa before their meeting in Paris on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Last update - 20:28 04/07/2007
Livni, in France, says prisoners to be freed in a matter of days
By the Associated Press and Haaretz Service

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Wednesday that 250 Palestinian prisoners would be released soon, as promised, as France pressed Israel to take the initiative in bolstering Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

The prisoner release, announced by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a regional summit last month, was held up pending a vote in Israel's Cabinet and a final decision on the list of prisoners to be freed.

"Israel always keeps its promises," Livni told reporters after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy. "But to pass a message to the Palestinians and show them there is a difference with terrorists ... we are going to free the 250 Fatah prisoners."
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In an interview aired Wednesday on the France-24 TV station, Livni said it was a question of days before the prisoners are freed.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who met with Livni, said the time was ripe for new momentum by Israel that could become unstoppable.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also pressed that message in a telephone call Tuesday to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, telling him that Israel must absolutely aid Abbas to take initiatives, spokesman David Martinon said. The message was delivered again Wednesday to visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Sarkozy recounted the phone call during a working lunch Wednesday with visiting Jordanian King Abdallah II, the presidential spokesman said.

In its own push, Paris has been multiplying its diplomatic contacts since the militant Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a virtual split with the Abbas government based in the West Bank.

On the sidelines in Paris, Livni and the foreign minister of the Muslim kingdom of Morocco, Mohamed Benaissa, also met for breakfast. They were the first publicly disclosed talks between the two nations' top diplomats in years. Morocco's late King Hassan II carried on secret diplomacy in the 1970s that led to the Camp David accords. Morocco broke off low-level diplomatic ties with Israel after the start of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000.

"It's at this moment that we feel - that all the observers feel - there is a need to make a gesture," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters after meeting with Livni.

"It's often Israel that makes the gestures - I know that, we know that," he said. "It's once again Israel's turn to start this momentum that will become unstoppable because the two populations want peace." He did not elaborate.

However, French authorities, citing the delicate situation, refused to divulge what gestures they had in mind.

"Everything is made up of extremely subtle balances, of apparently very modest advances, ideas that don't always resist a changing situation," the presidential spokesman said. "So truly, it would be totally counterproductive to talk about this, whatever the initiatives might be."

Sarkozy's Middle East talks began Friday with a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas said he won France's full support for the Palestinian Authority and $15 million in aid.

Following Sarkozy's election in May, a slight shift is expected in France's relations in the Middle East. Sarkozy has reached out to France's 5 million Muslims, but also has been more open to Israel than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was widely perceived as being. After Sarkozy's election, Israel's prime minister expressed confidence that Israeli-French relations would improve.

Livni told reporters after the meeting with Benaissa that the formation of a new Palestinian government provides a chance for progress.

"The formation of a new Palestinian government gives us hope," Livni said. She also noted Morocco's role in the Arab League, and said that Israel and moderate Muslim countries share the same concerns and face similar threats.

The Moroccan foreign minister, Mohamed Benaissa, did not speak to reporters after the meeting, but shook Livni's hand for the cameras. In the background, members of the Israeli delegation unwrapped gifts of gold pens they said were given to them by the Moroccans.

Israel Radio reported Wednesday that the two foreign ministers had planned to discuss the Arab peace plan, a 2002 peace initiative that calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 boundaries and a just and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee problem in exchange for normalized relations.

Full diplomatic ties between Morocco and Israel broke down after the September 2000 outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, although some contacts have continued.

Former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom visited Morocco in 2003 and met with King Mohammed VI.

Before relations soured, Morocco played an important behind-the-scenes role in the Middle East peace process. About 500,000 Israelis, roughly 10 percent of the Jewish population, are immigrants from Morocco or their descendants.

Jordan's King Abdullah II traveled to Paris for talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy on France's role in the re-launching of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, officials said.

The Jordanian monarch was also expected to urge France to support the Arab peace initiative, which was readopted by the Arab leaders at their summit in Riyadh at the end of March, they added.

Issues high on the agenda include means of boosting bilateral cooperation and the possibility of writing off part of France's debt due from Jordan, which is currently running at $950 million dollars, officials said.

French businesses in Jordan rank first among non-Arab foreign investments in the countr
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  1.   Everybody talks about it 13:57  |  Natallie Durson 04/07/07
  2.   500thousands?!! 15:54  |  Boozaglow 04/07/07
  3.   NIKOLAI, THE KING OF PEACE TOBE !!! 15:59  |  HES WE WAITING FOR. 04/07/07
  4.   Fools meet 16:07  |  BobUSA 04/07/07
  5.   Israel et Morocco are two Rogue States. 17:00  |  luc 04/07/07
  6.   Luc of France 17:37  |  ottomatik 04/07/07
  7.   #1 Natallie Durson - "Peace" 17:39  |  * BEN JABO 04/07/07
  8.   Palestinians and Nikolai 18:08  |  Ari 04/07/07
  9.   Sar-cosy with Israel 18:24  |  Karl 04/07/07
  10.   Israel make a gesture in Gaza? 18:29  |  Natallie Durson 04/07/07
  11.   TO BOB 18:57  |  HIRSCHBERG 04/07/07
  12.   French suggest Israel make gesture to Hamas 19:02  |  RAy 04/07/07
  13.   Why not Arab gestures? 19:12  |  Yakov 04/07/07
  14.   ONLY SOLUTION: GAZA TO EGYPT; W.BANK PARTITIONED WITH JORDAN 19:23  |  MG 04/07/07
  15.   Rogue state of France has once stated what an Israeli gesture 19:40  |  Absolute Sweden 04/07/07
  16.   israel has made enough gestures time for pals to keep theirs let 19:46  |  ralph 04/07/07
  17.   enough of gestures pal should keep the ones they made 19:47  |  ralph 04/07/07
  18.   enouogh of gestures no more land for peace doesn`t work pals must 19:48  |  ralph 04/07/07
  19.   #11 MG - Israel 19:56  |  * BEN JABO 04/07/07
  20.   #1 Natallie 19:56  |  Sol 04/07/07
  21.   Each and every time Israel makes a gesture 19:57  |  * BEN JABO 04/07/07
  22.   France does not rule Israel 20:56  |  Steven 04/07/07
  23.   Yakov Mystery solved (12) 21:02  |  Steven 04/07/07
  24.   israel supports the final solution against wertern sahara. 21:32  |  luc 04/07/07
  25.   Natalie 21:57  |  Al 04/07/07
  26.   Looks like there is a deal afoot 22:18  |  Chris Linthwaite 04/07/07
  27.   #21 Ben Jabo of America 22:21  |  Chris Linthwaite 04/07/07
  28.   15 Rogue state of France 22:22  |  KUTW 04/07/07
  29.   5. luc: Morocco is a Rogue State 22:28  |  KUTW 04/07/07
  30.   The World`s Most Repressive Societies 2006 22:37  |  julie 04/07/07
  31.   KUTW is right 22:46  |  luc 04/07/07
  32.   Chris Linthwaite # 26-27 23:02  |  Philippe 04/07/07
  33.   KUTW # 28 23:04  |  Philippe 04/07/07
  34.   Tzipi 23:31  |  Hilda 04/07/07
  35.   Israel-pals negotiations are the wrong path to Israel-Arab confli 23:35  |  Joseph E . 04/07/07
  36.   32. Philippe 23:52  |  KUTW 04/07/07
  37.   30. luc 00:01  |  KUTW 05/07/07
  38.   #27 Christ Linthwaite 01:18  |  * BEN JABO 05/07/07
  39.   Sol, they have to Give It All Up 01:33  |  Bernie 05/07/07
  40.   250 released = upcoming terrorist attacks 02:43  |  topanaga 05/07/07
  41.   FREEING FATAH PRISONERS 03:49  |  Scott Havsy 05/07/07
  42.   #10 Natallie Durson 03:55  |  * BEN JABO 05/07/07
  43.   Abbas said he agreed with road map. 04:44  |  Lili Shi 05/07/07
  44.   Behind-the-scenes diplomacy 05:04  |  Farid H. 05/07/07
  45.   #39 Bernie - Detroit 07:32  |  * BEN JABO 05/07/07
  46.   Luc and KUTW on UN resolutions 09:14  |  Philippe 05/07/07
  47.   western sahara is moroccan 11:03  |  wahbi 05/07/07
  48.   47. wahbi. western sahara is not Moroccan 12:57  |  KUTW 05/07/07
  49.   welcome morocco welcome israel 13:09  |  mohamed 05/07/07
  50.   YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY 02:07  |  JOJO 06/07/07
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