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WAR REPORT
Abbas: Core peace issues must be in line with intl law
by Staff Writers
Ramallah, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Feb 18, 2014


Kerry arrives in France for Mideast peace talks
Paris (AFP) Feb 18, 2014 - US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in France late Tuesday, jetting in after a brief visit to Tunisia where he praised the country's new leaders for efforts to shepherd its young democracy.

The top US diplomat has altered the schedule of his latest trip, which began in Seoul and whizzed through China and Indonesia as well as Abu Dhabi, to meet with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Paris on Wednesday.

US officials revealed Kerry would also now meet separately with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as well as Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Wednesday before his dinner with Abbas.

Kerry has led efforts to try to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, and is focused on trying to hammer out a framework to guide the negotiations in the coming weeks as an April deadline looms.

He last visited Israel in January, and will likely meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early March on the sidelines of an annual conference in Washington hosted by a powerful American Jewish lobby group.

US officials insist they are making progress on drawing up the framework, which is due to set out parameters and what the end-game in the negotiations is.

However, Israelis and Palestinians have publicly traded accusations that the other side is not serious about peace, and Kerry himself has been the target of bitter criticism as he has sought to wrest major compromises out of both sides.

During months of dogged diplomacy, Kerry persuaded the two sides back to the negotiating table in late July after a three-year hiatus, and they agreed to keeping talking for nine months -- a period which expires in late April.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Tuesday that all issues in the US-led peace negotiations with Israel, notably the refugee question, must be solved in line with international law.

Speaking on the eve of a meeting in Paris with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is shepherding the talks, Abbas said any peace deal would have to comply with international resolutions.

"We have shown the Peruvian president the destructive consequences of the settlement enterprise and the need for a just solution of the refugee question in line with UN resolution 194," Abbas told reporters at a press conference with his Peruvian counterpart Ollanta Humala.

Palestinians insist that the question of those who fled or were forced out of their homes when Israel was created in 1948 be resolved on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which defines principles for their "right of return."

"We also affirm the need to resolve all questions in line with international resolutions and law and to pursue all efforts to find a peaceful political solution to this conflict which has gone on for 65 years," he said.

Humala said it was a "great honour for a Peruvian president to be making a first official visit" since Lima recognised Palestine as an independent state in January 2011, nearly two years before the Palestinians won upgraded status as a UN observer state.

The refugees question is one of several key issues that have come up during negotiations to end the conflict, which are due to end in April, although Kerry is working on a framework that would allow the talks to be extended until the end of the year.

Speaking to 250 Israeli students in Ramallah on Sunday, Abbas insisted he did not want "to flood Israel" with returning refugees, and Palestinian negotiators have said the right of return would "not create an existential crisis for Israel."

But Israel fears such an acknowledgement would open the floodgates to millions of refugees, which would pose a demographic threat to the "Jewish and democratic character" of the state.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on March 3 at a key meeting expected to focus on the peace talks and the question of a nuclear Iran.

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