French President Nicolas Sarkozy with Tzipi Livni
צילום: רויטרס
France urges Israel to move up gestures to PA
France pushes for Israeli gestures as show of support in Palestinian President. 'Israel must absolutely aid Abbas' says French president
Israel's foreign minister said Wednesday that 250 Palestinian prisoners would be released soon, as promised, as France pressed the Jewish state to take the initiative in bolstering Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The prisoner release, announced by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a regional summit last month, was held up pending a vote in Israel's Cabinet and a final decision on the list of prisoners to be freed.
"Israel always keeps its promises," Tzipi Livni told reporters after a meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"But to pass a message to the Palestinians and show them there is a difference with terrorists ... We are going to free the 250 Fatah prisoners."
In an interview aired Wednesday on the France-24 TV station, Livni said it was a "question of days" before the prisoners are freed.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who met with Livni, said the time was ripe for new momentum by Israel that could become "unstoppable."
Sarkozy pressed that message in a telephone call Tuesday to Olmert, telling him that Israel "must absolutely aid" Abbas by taking initiatives, spokesman David Martinon said.
Sarkozy recounted the phone call during a working lunch Wednesday with visiting Jordanian King Abdallah II, the presidential spokesman said.
In its own push, Paris has been multiplying its diplomatic contacts since the militant Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in a virtual split with the Abbas government based in the West Bank.
On the sidelines in Paris, Livni and the foreign minister of the Muslim kingdom of Morocco, Mohamed Benaissa, also met for breakfast.
They were the first publicly disclosed talks between the two nations' top diplomats in years.
Morocco's late King Hassan II carried on secret diplomacy in the 1970s that led to the Camp David accords. Morocco broke off low-level diplomatic ties with Israel after the start of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in 2000.
"It's at this moment that we feel - that all observers feel - there is a need to make a gesture," Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters after meeting with Livni.
"It's often Israel that makes the gestures - I know that, we know that," he said. "It's once again Israel's turn to start this momentum that will become unstoppable because the two populations want peace."
However, French authorities, citing the delicate situation, refused to divulge what gestures they had in mind.
A subtle balance
"Everything is made up of extremely subtle balances, of apparently very modest advances, ideas that don't always resist a changing situation," the presidential spokesman said."So truly, it would be totally counterproductive to talk about this, whatever the initiatives might be." Sarkozy's Middle East talks began Friday with a visit by Abbas.
Abbas said he won France's full support for the Palestinian Authority.
Following Sarkozy's election in May, a slight shift is expected in France's relations in the Middle East. Sarkozy has reached out to France's five million Muslims, but also has been more open to Israel than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was widely perceived as being.
After Sarkozy's election, Israel's prime minister expressed confidence that Israeli-French relations would improve.
The Israeli foreign minister said Sarkozy "Knows how to tell the difference between who is just and who is not" but said the relationship with France "Is not the beginning but a continuation."
