The conference’s Joint Declaration on Sunday urged both sides to avoid "unilateral steps," to reaffirm their commitment to the two-state solution and stressed that the basis for negotiations should be the 1967 borders, before Israel occupied the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel has refused to take part in the negotiations, saying that it preferred to hold bilateral talks directly with the Palestinian side.
"I believe that Israel should have taken part in Paris conference at least for the sake of explaining out position and not letting the other side to take the benefit of Israel’s absence at such important international forum. I think every such gathering is important to underline the commitment of the Israeli side to the two-state solution. If Netanyahu is unable or unwilling to clearly state that he supports this solution, it contradicts his earlier statements," Svetlova, who is a member of the Knesset foreign affairs legislative committee, said.
Moreover, Israel would have to "pay the price" for the potential relocation of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem since the Middle Eastern countries rather than Washington would have to deal with the subsequent regional destabilization, an opposition member of the Israeli parliament, Ksenia Svetlova, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
In September, US President-elect Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his administration would recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel and move the US embassy there.
"It is really up to the United States to decide whether they want to transfer the embassy to Jerusalem or not. However, as an Israeli citizen and as a member of the parliament and a member of the foreign affairs committee, I would like to point out that we are in fact do not have a common border with the United States. We are bordering with our Arab neighbors, therefore, if as the result of transferring the US embassy to Jerusalem Jordan is destabilized, or Egypt is destabilized, or the Palestinian territories are in chaos, Israel will pay the price, not Trump or the Americans," Svetlova said.
On Tuesday, members of inter-Palestinian talks, which took place in Moscow on January 15-17, urged Washington to abandon plans of the US embassy relocation warning that it would trigger a new wave of violence in the Middle East.
Svetlova stressed that the French side failed to exploit possibilities that an international venue can offer in terms of bringing the conflict sides together. "They had to be doing a groundwork trying to bring the two leaders together to deliver their statements on this important matter. I don't think that this conference was prepared well enough," she stated.
Palestinians seek diplomatic recognition for their independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which is partially occupied by Israel, and the Gaza Strip. Israel has been building settlements on the occupied territories despite objection from the United Nations.
