French embassy - Ambassade de France
| RSSBernard Kouchner’s visit to London (2 May 2008)
The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs travelled to London on 2 May. He represented France at a meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) that reaffirmed the international community’s support for the reforms launched by President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and reviewed follow-through on pledges issued in Paris.
The EU and the US respected their commitments, providing budgetary support for the Palestinian Authority. The Minister invited countries that had not yet disbursed aid to do so rapidly and to convert part of their project assistance into budgetary assistance.
All of the participants noted the deterioration in the economic situation and invited the Israeli authorities to do more to offer concrete support to the Palestinian Authority and notably to facilitate free movement.
The Minister hailed the Quartet’s communiqué, published the same day, which supports the continuation of Israeli-Palestinian final status negotiations, invites the parties to change their approach to Gaza, and calls on Israel to freeze all settlements, including natural growth.
The Minister also took part in an E3+3 Group (France, UK and Germany, plus the US, China and Russia) on the Iranian nuclear issue. In line with their policy of calling for negotiations while adopting sanctions in the absence of an Iranian response, the Six decided to once more prove their resolve to negotiate by presenting Iran with a new cooperation offer based on the one they had made in 2006.
Following their joint declaration, made after the vote on resolution 1803, in which they confirmed their 2006 offer and announced they were prepared to develop it in the framework of their twin-track approach, the Six agreed on the terms of a new offer that will soon be conveyed to Iran.
This is an ambitious offer that includes concrete proposals on civilian nuclear power, political and security concerns, and economic and technological cooperation. It underscores the benefit Iran would gain from a cooperative approach on the nuclear issue.
We hope that after receiving this new offer, Iran will finally choose the path of dialogue and negotiation.
See also:
International Donors’ Conference for the Palestinian State (Paris, 17 December 2007)
Inter-Palestinian agreement on the formation of a government of national unity