Sarkozy offers to host Mideast peace talks
Posted: 15 November 2009 2248 hrs

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JERUSALEM : French President Nicolas Sarkozy has offered to host a Middle East peace conference in Paris in talks with Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian leaders last week, an Israeli daily reported on Sunday.

"Sarkozy first raised the proposal in his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, then with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Syrian President Bashar Assad," Haaretz said, quoting unnamed French officials.

Such a conference would also include Jordan's King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Lebanese President Michel Sleiman, as well as representatives of the Middle East Quartet which includes the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, it said.

Sarkozy met both Netanyahu and Assad in Paris last week and spoke by phone with Abbas, whose aides said the French leader had offered "important suggestions" to restart the stalled peace process.

The French offer comes after months of US efforts to relaunch peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians failed to produce any breakthrough.

Asked to comment on the report, a senior official at the Israeli foreign ministry would only say under condition of anonymity that "Israel welcomes in advance all possibilities of a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Syrian and Palestinian presidents."

- AFP /ls