Paris: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began a trip to Europe on Sunday facing widespread criticism of the US decision to recognise occupied Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state and pressure to engage in the peace process.
In his first meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, he was urged to re-engage with the Palestinians to build goodwill following widespread protests over the capital move.
Netanyahu travelled to Brussels on Monday where he held informal talks over breakfast with Europe’s foreign ministers who will also pressure him over the moribund peace process.
The EU’s diplomatic chief warned on Thursday that the US decision on occupied Jerusalem “has the potential to send us backwards to even darker times than the ones we’re already living in.”
Trump’s announcement on Wednesday has been followed by days of protests and clashes in the Occupied Territories.
Four Palestinians were killed either in clashes or from Israeli air strikes in retaliation for rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.
Tens of thousands have also protested in Muslim and Arab countries, including Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia.
Further protests were held in Lebanon, Indonesia, Egypt and the Occupied Territories on Sunday.
Macron was also asked if France would attempt to launch another peace initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict following failed efforts in the past.
“There’s a desire by the Americans to mediate which remains and I don’t want to condemn it ab initio [from the beginning],” he said. “We need to wait for the next few weeks, the next months to see what will be proposed.
“And I think we have to wait to see whether the interested parties accept it or not.
“It’s preferable once an initiative is under way to not launch another one because they can cannibalise each other,” he added.
Netanyahu was an outspoken critic of efforts by former French president Francois Hollande to push a Middle East peace process.
The Israeli premier boycotted a conference on the Israeli-Palestian conflict in Paris in January attended by 70 countries which he called “futile” and “a last gasp of the past”.
