PARIS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday said his country would officially recognize the Palestinian state if diplomatic efforts to bring about peace fail.
"We must act to make progress in the implementation of peace which should be based on the co-existence of two sovereign and democratic states living side-by-side in peace and security," Fabius told the French parliament.
"If final efforts to negotiate fail, then France will have to do what it takes by recognizing without delay the Palestinian state," he added.
French lawmakers are discussing a bill, presented by the ruling Socialist party, to recognize a Palestinian state to promote security and peace in the Middle East.
Fabius spoke in favor of "a real Palestinian state" that must be followed by taking concrete action "after 25 years of an unfruitful peace process."
In a move to pressure both sides to overcome the impasse, France proposed a UN-backed resolution to set two-year timeframe to reach a negotiated solution to the decade-long conflict in the region.
"We are backing negotiations but we refuse the fact that talks will be the management method of an unfair status-quo," the French top diplomat stressed.
France's lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, on Friday started discussions on whether to recognize a Palestinian state with the final vote scheduled for Dec. 2.
Last month, Britain, Ireland and Sweden voted through a symbolic motion to recognize Palestine.
According to the daily Le Figaro, about 150 pro-Israeli protestors have been gathered in front of the National Assembly to denounce the due vote likely to "encourage terrorists" and "be a message for the Jewish community to leave France."
PRETORIA, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has reiterated the commitment to a two-state solution for peace with Israel, said South African President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday.
"We have further re-committed ourselves to the two-state solution where the states of Israel and Palestine will coexist side by side in peace, within secured borders on the basis of the 1967 lines with East Jerusalem as the Capital of Palestine," Zuma told a press briefing in Pretoria after meeting with Abbas, who was on a state visit. Full Story
UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Top UN officials on Monday voiced their solidarity with the people of Palestine, calling on both Israelis and Palestinians to cease acts of violence, overcome their differences, and resume peace talks with a clear framework towards resolving the decades-long dispute.
"Regrettably, as we meet here today, the path towards a durable peace remains uncertain," said Sam Kutesa, president of the 69th session of the UN General Assembly, at a special meeting of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People held Monday morning here at UN Headquarters to mark the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Full Story
