French foreign minister to visit Ramallah next month
Jean-Marc Ayrault coming to the region to assess responses to the French initiative to hold an international peace conference.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault will visit Ramallah next month to assess responses to the French initiative to hold an international peace conference, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki was quoted by the Turkish news agency Anadolu as saying.
Ayrault has taken a slightly different position than his predecessor, Laurent Fabius, who said France will recognize the state of Palestine, if the French Initiative fails.
In early March, Ayrault said, "Nothing is ever automatic. France takes this initiative and is going to present it to its partners, so it's a first step. There is no precondition."
"What we want, that's our commitment, is to relaunch a political process of negotiation, to revive a peace process and that's our priority. So we'll do everything to create a favorable climate to revive the process."
Al-Maliki announced Ayrault's visit at the conclusion of a surprise visit to Brussels, where he met with European officials including Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.
The Palestinian foreign minister added, "The French Initiative constituted a major part of his meeting with members of the EU Committee on Foreign Affairs."
