Sarkozy: Revive Mideast peace or risk extremist backlash
French president urges Israel, Palestinians to renew peace talks, warns current deadlock caters to extremists; expected to visit Saudi Arabia later on Tuesday
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Israel and the Palestinians to promptly revive the Middle East peace process or else risk an extremist backlash, in an interview with the Saudi daily Al-Riyad Tuesday.
"The priority is to restart as soon as possible the peace process," Sarkozy said, who arrives in Saudi Arabia for a one-day visit later Tuesday.
Sarkozy stressed the urgency of the matter and noted that the current deadlock plays into the hands of extremists. "Each day the chance of peace is slipping away a little."
"The deadlock in which we find ourselves today is extremely worrying. But sometimes in these moments of great tensions solutions arise, because they give the actors the courage and strength to move forward," the French president said.
"It is for us to help them," Sarkozy added, citing in particular the United States, the European Union and Russia.
Commenting on talks last week, Sarkozy said he called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt settlement construction and on Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to remain "committed" to 2010 elections.
Abbas has announced that he would not stand for re-election scheduled for January 24 due to frustrations with the stalled peace process.
Sarkozy, who also met last week with Syrian President Bashar Assad, welcomed the willingness of Israel and Syria to resume negotiations, suspended since Israel's devastating war on Gaza at the turn of the year.
"The Israelis and the Syrians expressed their willingness to resume negotiations," the French president said.
"They still need to agree on modalities. I'm not saying this will be easy, but confess that we have already advanced," he said, adding France was "available to facilitate the resumption of these talks."
