A senior French envoy held talks in Egypt on Thursday on his country’s bid to organize an international
conference later this year to impose a “two-state solution” on Israel, officials said.
Negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians have been at a standstill since a US-led initiative
collapsed in April 2014.
French envoy Pierre Vimont met Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry for talks on future steps he
will take to prepare for the conference, a foreign ministry statement said.
The Arab League said its secretary general Nabil al-Arabi had similar talks with Vimont.
Earlier this month, representatives from 28 Arab and Western countries, the Arab League, European Union
and the United Nations met in Paris to discuss ways in which the international community could help
advance the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state.
However, neither Israeli nor Palestinian representatives were invited to attend the meeting, which aimed
to lay the ground for a fully-fledged “peace conference” to be held by the end of the year.
The Palestinian Authority has welcomed the French bid but Israel has said the initiative would go down in
history as having “pushed peace further away”.