Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Irit Ben-Abba, emphasized the importance of direct bilateral negotiations for Mideast peace, while echoing Israeli positions in an article for “N” this week — all ahead of a Middle East peace conference to be held in Paris under the auspices of the French government on Sunday.
The summit, which will be attended by representatives of dozens of countries, including outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry, will not be attended by Israeli officials. In fact, the Netanyahu government has rounding criticized the event
Amb. Ben-Abba stressed that the path to peace does not pass through “international conferences, resolutions and meaningless meetings.”
Instead, she underlined that only face-to-face meetings between the two sides, and at venues where each side’s leaders are ready to make with painful concessions and show determination for a better future, bring about results. The Israeli envoy said this process is what resulted in a peace settlement between Egypt and Israel in 1979, which itself served as a template for an agreement between her country and Jordan in 1994.
“From Northern Ireland to South Sudan, in every region of the world, only direct negotiations have led to real solution,” she emphasized in her article.
