Middle East News
Netanyahu, Sarkozy meet in Paris amidst peace stalemate (Roundup)
Nov 11, 2009, 17:52 GMT
Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Paris Wednesday for talks on the stalled Mideast peace process.
In a terse joint statement issued after the meeting, the two leaders said they agreed 'to make every effort' to relaunch peace negotiations.
But most observers believed that the meeting must have been tense, as Sarkozy has repeatedly called for a total freeze on Israeli settlement activity in the interest of resolving the political impasse.
Netanyahu has rejected these demands, claiming that Israeli settlers in the West Bank had the right to expand their communities.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said there was 'a real political disagreement' between Sarkozy and Netanyahu regarding settlement activity.
'We continue to think that a freeze on settlements - that is, no settlement construction during (peace) talks - is absolutely indispensable,' Kouchner told France Inter radio.
The Israeli prime minister had met late Monday in Washington with US President Barack Obama. Their talks apparently also failed to produce any progress towards reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
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