French Middle East peace envoy in Egypt for talks

The Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri received France’s special envoy for the Middle East peace initiative Pierre Vimont on Wednesday.

A ministry statement said Shoukri explained his country’s vision to encourage both Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks.

According to the statement, the officials also discussed the results of the Paris meeting as well as future steps to prepare for a proposed international peace conference to take place before the end of this year.

The statement did not give details about Egypt’s vision to revive the stalled talks. After his meeting with Vimont, the chairman of the Arab Affairs Committee in the Egyptian Parliament said his country agrees with the French initiative’s proposal to set two years as the timeline to reach a final solution to the Palestinian issue.

“We propose to divide the period into four stages where each stage will have its own goals that must be achieved to overcome Israel’s stalling.”

On 3 June, Paris held an international meeting with the participation of 24 countries, including Egypt but without Israel and the Palestinians, in preparation for an international peace conference to be held before the end of this year.