Today's Date:

Statements made by M. Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, during his joint press briefing with Mr Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority

THE MINISTER – Ladies and gentlemen, I have the great honour and great pleasure to welcome my friend the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mr Mahmoud Abbas.

It's a very singular time the Palestinian people are living through.  It's a time of chaos, sadness, and, often, despair.  This afternoon the President of the Palestinian Authority, i.e. the legitimate expression of the Palestinian people, has had a meeting with President Sarkozy.  President Sarkozy has spoken to the press and certainly told you that the President of the Palestinian Authority had the firm support of the French government and people.

We are absolutely clearly supporting Mr Mahmoud Abbas.  We said this immediately after the grim events in Gaza.  President Sarkozy telephoned Mr Mahmoud Abbas.  We have supported him politically, economically and in a spirit of great fraternity.  We are going to go on doing so and, to be very clear and very direct, we think these sad events provide the opportunity for a return to a hope of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

(…)

Q. – You say that this is the moment to strengthen the peace process.  What can France do to assist its reactivation?

THE MINISTER – First of all, France can hear what has just been said and make a distinction between those using murder and crime for political ends and the proponents of peace.  She has just demonstrated this in full view of the world.  France can talk, France can convince.  I think that France is, genuinely, the friend of the Israeli people and the friend of the Palestinian people;  and this isn't new, we've been saying it for over 25 years.

Those present here are our friends and the Israelis also know they can count on us.  But our Palestinian and Israeli friends are fully aware that the solution is to return to the peace process.  Everything has been done [for this], particularly in Geneva but also in many other places, with Saudi Arabia's [peace] proposal and everything the President of the Palestinian Authority has said.

We know one meeting isn't enough.  For the Palestinians, for the Palestinian people to be convinced, they need evidence.  They must be able to breathe a bit more freely in the Occupied Territories.

There must be hope of a political process.  Just now, President Abbas was talking about an international force in Gaza?  Why not?  We can think about this, of course, but it will never replace the political process.

On one side there are those who want peace and, on the other, those who want "to murder".

Let's try to resume the dialogue between those in favour of peace.  Let the others join in.  I'm not conflating Hamas with the Palestinian people.  There are people suffering in Gaza. There are people in prison in Gaza and, quite obviously, we must pay attention to them.  But, politically, we are on the side of the Palestinian Authority, which is the only body representing the Palestinian people. (…)./.