By: ICEJ News

UNSC Meeting on Middle East Scheduled for Tuesday

Israeli officials were breathing a sigh of relief Monday following the conference in Paris on Sunday which ended with a statement much less harshly critical of Israel than what had been anticipated. Additionally, US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly after the statement to tell him that the US will resist efforts to include even the watered-down statement as part of any action taken by the UN Security Council when it meets on Tuesday.

Here is a video of PM Netanyahu’s comments regarding the conference at Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting

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The statement called for another conference in the coming months “to support both sides in advancing the two-state solution through negotiations” and also implored “each side… to refrain from unilateral steps that prejudge the outcome of negotiations on final-status issues, including, inter alia, on Jerusalem, borders, security, refugees and which they will not recognize.”

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat issued a statement, saying, “We welcome today’s statement by the Paris Peace Conference, which stressed the need to end the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 as per international law and international legitimacy resolutions; including the recent Security Council Resolution 2334.”

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom sent a strong message of no-confidence in the conference by sending a mid-level diplomat to represent it and by refusing to sign on to the final statement.

“We have particular reservations about an international conference intended to advance peace between the parties that does not involve them– indeed, which is taking place against the wishes of the Israelis– and which is taking place just days before the transition to a new American President when the US will be the ultimate guarantor of any agreement,” a Foreign Office statement read.

There are risks,” the UK government warned, “that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for peace.”

Meanwhile, French leaders went to great lengths during their remarks to the press following the conference to dismiss the notion that it had been an abject and embarrassing failure for them.