BICOM

Palestinian publication Al-Quds reports that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas rejected a peace initiative proposed by US Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to the region this week.

Biden met with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem, before travelling to Ramallah to meet with Abbas. Apparently, Biden suggested a consensus between Israel and the PA based on four main clauses – East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, an end to Israeli construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state and an end to Palestinian claims of a right of return. Apparently, Abbas concluded that Biden’s initiative would not lead to a major breakthrough and so declined the suggestion.

The Wall St Journal also indicates that such an initiative had been suggested by Biden, saying that the White House is keen to offer an alternative to France’s suggestion of an international peace conference this summer and that President Obama wishes to lay some groundwork for his successor to make progress.

The French Foreign Ministry’s special envoy Pierre Vimont is expected to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah early next week, in order to further push the French plan for an international conference. Following initial consultations, Paris intends to establish an international support group, in preparation for a formal conference in June or July. However, France’s new Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayraul this week appeared to backtrack on his predecessor Laurent Fabius’s pledge to recognise a Palestinian state if the conference does not bear fruit. Israeli leaders criticised Fabius’s position, saying that it offered the Palestinians no incentive to make concessions, in the knowledge that belligerence would bring recognition.

Netanyahu has described the French initiative as “puzzling,” but has consistently reiterated his willingness to negotiate with Abbas without preconditions anywhere and at any time. During a recent visit to Berlin, he said, “There is only one way to advance peace: direct negotiations without precondition between the parties.”