President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris on Thursday as France told the United Nations that Europe was considering giving formal recognition to a Palestinian state.
"Recognition of the state of Palestine is one of the options which France is considering, with its European partners, with a view to creating a political horizon for relaunching the peace process," French ambassador Gerard Araud told a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East. His statement came as Abbas was in the French capital to seek Sarkozy's "advice", in his own words, on the Palestinian Authority's bid to convince the world to accept its statehood even ahead of an ever elusive peace deal.
Any move to welcome a Palestinian state into the community of nations would be seen as an attempt to give a jolt to peace talks with Israel that stalled last September after Israel refused to extend a moratorium on settlements. Abbas told the French daily le Figaro that US President Barack Obama "should" propose a peace plan ahead of a September deadline previously set for an accord to create a Palestinian state.
"The United States, as the big power, has the duty to make proposals. It is they who can convince Israel," he said in an interview to be published on Friday. European ambassadors at the UN Security Council, meanwhile, called for "bold" US leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Britain also indicated that state recognition could be considered.
"Nothing is off the table with regard to recognition in September," said a British spokesman. Pressure has mounted on Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid heightened Palestinian-Israeli hostilities and a US block on European attempts to break the deadlock.
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