French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, third from right, aat the meeting, which is a bid to garner support for a two-year deadline for talks on Palestinian statehood. (Associated Press)
France on Tuesday tried to overcome resistance and rally international support for a draft UN plan setting a two-year deadline for peace talks on Palestinian statehood.
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met in Paris with the secretary-general of the Arab League, Egyptian and Palestinian ministers, and former Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Fabius is seeking support for a draft U.N. resolution that the French hope would be a catalyst for peace talks. The French, seeking a higher-profile role in Middle East diplomacy, see their draft as more palatable than a Jordanian-backed resolution also under discussion.
There's growing pressure from European legislators to recognize a Palestinian state amid frustration over decades of failed peace efforts. But European countries are divided over the idea of setting a 2016 deadline, with Germany particularly reluctant, diplomats said.
Peres argued for holding negotiations before imposing any timetable, and said now is not a good time to make any major moves because Israel is facing a political transition after upcoming elections.
"There is a need and a time for a Palestinian state," he told reporters in Paris. "I think it would be better to reach it through an agreement than through an imposition."
Fabius said "it's high time" to get peace talks going again.
He discussed the draft Monday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The French know that the Americans are opposed to the draft resolution as it stands, but are hoping to work out a version that the Americans could support, French diplomats said.
France, facing a rise in anti-Semitism, also has domestic reasons to push for progress. Mideast violence often translates into protests and other unrest in France, home to western Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish populations.