Occupied Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called this weekend’s Middle East peace conference in Paris a “fraud” on Thursday, with his government refusing to play any role in the meeting.
“This conference is a fraud, a Palestinian fraud supported by France, the aim of which is to adopt additional anti-Israeli positions,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with the Norwegian foreign minister, according to his office.
“It’s not going to obligate us. It’s a relic of the past, it’s a last gasp of the past before the future sets in,” he said in English.
Sunday’s conference to be attended by some 70 nations is aimed at exploring ways to restart long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
French President Francois Hollande said that talks in Paris on Sunday do not aim to replace bilateral negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Hollande, who was giving his last speech to the foreign diplomatic corps before stepping down in May, also said on Thursday that potential Syria peace talks had to resume quickly and include all components of Syrian society, as well as regional actors and be under the auspices of the United Nations.
He added that an increase in violence in Libya was extremely concerning, but that dividing the country was not an option.
