Dear Foreign Secretary,
I wish to thank the UK Government for refusing to sign up to the communique that was issued at the Paris peace conference that took place on Sunday 15 January 2017 and for blocking the statement on 16 January from EU foreign ministers which would have adopted the concluding parameters from the conference.
We agree with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that the conference did nothing to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians, which requires the Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas to accept Mr Netanyahu’s offer to return directly to the negotiations table.
We note that this reaffirms the Prime Minister’s view that “we do not believe the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements, when clearly the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is so deeply complex.”
We agree with the Government that solely blaming Israel for the current stalemate in the peace process does not help brings peace between Israelis and Palestinians . It could also be seen as rewarding Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to enter into dialogue with the Israeli Government and the incitement from Palestinian leaders which has played a key role in the wave of terror over the last 16 months which has killed 46 people and wounded 649.
Like the Government we believe peace cannot be achieved by international conferences that do not include Israeli and Palestinian leaders, but only through direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
We would like to thank the Government for taking a stance which recognises that Israel is not the main reason for the failure to achieve peace and that for peace to be achieved Palestinians need to return to the negotiating table and end incitement to terrorism.