Israel-Palestine Peace Meeting Postponed Over Disagreement on Participants

The international ministerial meeting on Israeli-Palestinian peace initially scheduled for May 30 in Paris had been postponed until early June over disagreements on a list of participating states, a diplomatic source told Sputnik Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier on Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said that the meeting had been postponed because US State Secretary John Kerry was unable to attend the talks on May 30.

“It was postponed to the first week of June. As far as I know, the parties [to this meeting] believe they are not prepared for it. There is still a big issue with a list of participating countries,” the source said.

In May, Palestinian Ambassador to Russia Abdel Hafiz Nofal told Sputnik that Palestine welcomes the French initiative to host a meeting, but has some concerns over a list of participating states.

In late January, then-French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius proposed an initiative for an international conference to help resume the stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks. He stressed that Paris would be ready to recognize Palestinian statehood if the talks yielded no results. Israel has rejected the French plan.

Palestine seeks the recognition of its independent state on territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. The Israeli government has so far refused to recognize the State of Palestine as an independent diplomatic entity. The State of Palestine is recognized by 136 of the 193 UN member states.