ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS-NICHOLSON/NETANYAHU Canadian FM Nicholson meets Israeli leadership

Record ID: 150102

  • Title: ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS-NICHOLSON/NETANYAHU Canadian FM Nicholson meets Israeli leadership
  • Date: 3rd June 2015
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (JUNE 3, 2015) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU AND CANADIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ROB NICHOLSON ARRIVING AT PRESS CONFERENCE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER OFFICE SIGN ON PODIUM (SOUNDBITE) (English) ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU SAYING: "Canada, led by Prime Minister Harper, is always stalwart and tells
  • Embargoed: 18th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA7MH4SJ0RITTQOFR7Q69CZU7LV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Canadian Foreign Minister Rob Nicholson met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday (June 3) during a two-day visit to the region to kickstart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
    Nicholson's visit to the region is part of a string of diplomats headed to the region to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in an effort to resume peace negotiations stalled since 2014.
    During a joint news conference, Netanyahu praised Canada for standing by the "truth" and slammed Britain's National Union of Students who voted on Tuesday (June 2) to boycott Israel.
    "A national student group in Britain voted to support a boycott of Israel. This is less than a year after they refused to support a boycott of ISIS. They boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott ISIS. That tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
    Nicholson, who was in Israel for the first time, said he came to voice "Canada's unwavering support for Israel".
    "We understand that Israel's neighbourhood is as dangerous as Canada's is peaceful and so we know that Israel's leadership has no choice but to take at all times every step necessary to protect itself from the forces that are openly committed to its destruction," said Nicholson.
    European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met both sides in recent weeks and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced a visit later in June aimed at pressing ahead in getting an international consensus for a U.N. Security Council resolution that would set parameters for peace talks.
    France recently handed a working document to Arab League countries in preparation of a Security Council resolution that would set a timeframe and the exact parameters of new peace talks between Israelis and the Palestinians, French diplomats have said.
    Nicholson, who was also scheduled to travel to the West Bank on Wednesday (June 3), met Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem after a short meeting with Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.
    During their meeting, Rivlin urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table instead of turning to institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations.
    "He (President Mahmoud Abbas) would like to use all the institutions from all over the world whether we are talking on the ICC or we are talking about the United Nations, instead of coming to us and trying to start and to solve the problem," Rivlin said.
    After years of U.S.-led efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians talks have collapsed. Washington has said it would "reassess" its options on U.S.-Israel relations and Middle East diplomacy after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during the last election campaign he was against Palestinian statehood.
    In December, the U.S voted against a Palestinian-drafted resolution calling for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem and the establishment of a Palestinian state by late 2017.
    Palestinians seek a state in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in 1967.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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