By IANS
Paris : France expressed strong support Monday for the ongoing meetings and the discussion process undertaken between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The talks had been taking place at a sustained pace after the Annapolis conference last November, but they ran into difficulty because of Israels aggressive military campaign against Gaza, where scores of civilians and militants have died in air raids and ground assaults in the past several months.
Targeted extra-judicial assassinations in the West Bank, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, have also strained relations between Olmert and Abbas, who are due to resume talks on Sunday after Abbas called them off.
“We fully support the political process that the Israeli Prime Minister and the President of the Palestinian Authority have initiated with courage and determination since Annapolis,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani said.
“Israelis and Palestinians must arrive at an historic, necessary and difficult compromise,” the official remarked.
She also said that France “encouraged the resolute pursuit of negotiations and a move forward with a view to a final settlement before the end of 2008.” “That must come, firstly, through concrete advances on the ground,” the spokeswoman added.
France has particularly called on Israel to halt illegal assassinations, to stop settlement expansion in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and to help the Palestinian moderates by lifting blockades and allowing the Palestinian economy to develop.