JERUSALEM: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius meets Israeli leadership in Jerusalem amid renewed peace talks with the Palestinians

Record ID: 397874

  • Title: JERUSALEM: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius meets Israeli leadership in Jerusalem amid renewed peace talks with the Palestinians
  • Date: 25th August 2013
  • Summary: JERUSALEM (AUGUST 25, 2013) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** EXTERIOR OF KING DAVID HOTEL IN JERUSALEM ISRAELI PEACE NEGOTIATOR AND MINISTER OF JUSTICE TZIPI LIVNI AND FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER LAURENT FABIUS WALKING TO PODIUM CAMERA CREW FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER LAURENT FABIUS, SAYING: "I am here as you know, on a short visit. It's a vi
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVABY1PNUARWQ970WFICBUL6VDRC
  • Story Text: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Israeli President Shimon Peres and negotiator Tzipi Livni on Sunday (August 25) to encourage recently resumed peace talks with the Palestinians.
    Israelis and Palestinians held a third round of negotiations on Tuesday (August 20), amid mounting scepticism on both sides that the fresh talks would succeed in ending the decades old conflict.

    "I, like you think that the moment has come to make peace. And I salute the sense of responsibility of Netanyahu, president Abu Mazen (referring to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas), and the tenacious work of John Kerry - they have all helped this moment to succeed," Fabius told reporters during his meeting with Peres.
    The negotiations were renewed last month in Washington after a three-year stand-off over Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas captured in the 1967 Middle East war that Palestinians wants for a state along with the Gaza Strip.
    A second round of talks was held at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem on August 14, despite Palestinian consternation over Israel's approval in the run-up to the meeting of plans for 3,100 new homes for settlers.
    President Peres, speaking about the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the international community must consider an immediate response.

    "I think it's unprecedented what's happening in Syria, really. I can't recall any ruler who decided to kill his own children. There were terrible things in the past, but here is a ruler that kills his own people without any considerations and with the most terrible means. I do believe it's the most unbelievable moral crimes in history," Peres said.
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during his cabinet meeting on Sunday that chemical weapons use in Syria cannot be tolerated, as Washington considers its response to the killing of hundreds of civilians in an alleged poison gas attack.
    The prospect of Western military intervention in Syria has stoked concern in Israel that Assad could respond by striking Israeli targets.
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