Sarkozy pledges France's support on Iran
French president, foreign minister meet with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik before she delivered keynote speech before nearly a thousand European MPs at 'unprecedented' Paris conference in support of Israel
While the position of US President-elect Barack Obama on Iran's nuclear ambitions has raised a fair deal of questions, Israel received an encouraging push from French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday evening.
Sarkozy invited Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to meet with him at the Élysée Palace prior to her keynote speech at an atypically large event for Israel. The president reaffirmed France's support of Israel in its concerns over Tehran.
Itzik also touched on the Iranian issue in her meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. The two also discussed the efforts to secure the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, who retains French citizenship.
Iztik with Kouchner (Photo: Guillaume Bureau, Israeli Embassy)
Considered unprecedented in scale in the European Union, the prestigious conference in Paris was organized by European Friends of Israel (EFI), a leading lobby group.
Close to a thousand members of parliament from 27 EU member nations took part in the event.
According to EFI, support of Israel has reached a peak in the EU, and the organization claims that 2,000 of the 6,000 MPs are supportive of Israel and have declared an interest in the lobby's initiatives to strengthen European ties to Jerusalem.
"This is an unprecedented event," said an EFI official. "Just this week it was reported that MPs in Brussels invited a Hamas delegation to visit, and Israel's response is a massive gathering of supporters, here in Paris."
In her speech Itzik told the audience that Europe has a historic duty to help preserve Israel's security.
She also spoke of Shalit, and urged those assembled to organize petitions calling for the soldier's release in their own parliaments. In a recent trip to Damascus, President Sarkozy passed a letter for Gilad from his father, Noam Shalit, through exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
Itzik warned that Iran "endangers not only Israel, but the entire world. If terror group are able to lay their hands on nuclear weapons provided by Iran, they will be able to target Paris, London and New York as well."
Roni Sofer contributed to this report
