Off the wire
• AU summit deliberates on alternative sources of funding to development projects  • AU summit commends stakeholders' support in fight against Ebola  • "Kung Fu Panda 3" opens to lead North American box office  • Saudi-led coalition investigates allegations of violations in Yemen  • Algeria arrests 9 Moroccan illegal migrants  • Algeria's domestic energy consumption rises by 7.5 pct  • Abbas welcomes and backs French peace initiative: report  • Hamas says to continue preparations for any battle with Israel  • PSV take over lead from Ajax  • UN Syrian Envoy to meet separately with government and opposition on Monday  
You are here: 　 Home

Israeli president urges active response to fresh peace initiative

Xinhua, February 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin said Sunday that the country should raise initiative moves to advance peace with the Palestinians, amid a recent call by a French official to hold a peace summit.

The president criticized the Israeli government's inaction in this regard, which set the background for the recent proposal by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to conduct a peace summit.

"It must not be allowed in the current absence of a political process that we will be condemned to passivity," Rivlin told the Israeli diplomats on Sunday afternoon, according to a statement from his office.

"The improvement in the state of the relations between the two peoples is a distinct Israeli interest," Rivlin said, adding that Israel should take on a more hands-on approach rather than react to other initiatives.

Over the weekend, Fabius said that if the peace summit will not materialize, France will acknowledge a Palestinian state. Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the proposal, and its accompanying ultimatum.

"The French bid gives incentive for the Palestinians not to compromise," Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, adding that he is "willing to resume direct negotiations without preconditions."

The Palestinians, on their part, welcomed the initiative, adding they will not hold negotiations with Israel "simply for the sake of negotiations."

The last round of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, mediated by the United States, ended abruptly in April 2014.

The Palestinians then accused Israel of making irrational security demands, and foot dragging and expanding the Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Israel, on its part, charged that the Palestinians should recognize a Jewish state's right to exist and decried a reconciliation pact reached between Fatah and Hamas, brought about after seven years of internal fighting.

Israel deems Hamas a terrorist organization and had fought several rounds of battles against it in the Gaza Strip in recent years.

Israel occupied the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians wish to establish an independent state on these territories, in accordance with the two-state solution. Endit