French PM in Israel and Palestine to push peace initiative forward

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls began a visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories on Saturday in support of France’s peace initiative.

Valls denied reports that Paris had threatened to recognise the State of Palestine in the event of the failure of the initiative to re-launch peace efforts.

In an interview with the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam published yesterday, Valls said that the Israeli settlement of occupied Palestinian territories “must stop”.

“Our aim is to allow your national aspirations to finally be realised. To say today when we will recognise the Palestinian state is to determine in advance the failure of our initiative.”

“Stopping settlements is imperative,” he said, “because we cannot both want to discuss peace and be sincere in the negotiations and at the same time continue to create facts on the ground.”