JERUSALEM/WEST BANK: Top French and British diplomats hold regional talks ahead of Annapolis conference

France's Kouchner and Britain's Miliband hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to pave the way for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace summit expected in late November. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his British counterpart David Miliband met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Sunday (November 18) to discuss regional affairs ahead of a peace conference expected later in November. Kouchner met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem before travelling to Ramallah where he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and the Quartet's Mideast envoy Tony Blair. Kouchner also held a joint news conference with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem where he rebuffed an Israeli newspaper report about France headlined: 'Not ruling out strike on Iran'. "We are talking to the Iranians. Discussion, discussion, discussion; diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. So, I was really surprised to discover this particularly of virile position of France in the title of this newspaper," Kouchner told reporters. Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are expected to meet on Monday (November 19) in Jerusalem for the last time before attending the conference. In addition to at least a partial freeze in Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank, Olmert plans to ask his cabinet on Monday to approve the release of around 450 Palestinian prisoners, short of the 2,000 requested by Abbas, Israeli officials said. "We are willing to change reality on the ground in order to ease the life of the Palestinians, during the negotiations, before the negotiations, in order to create atmosphere of peace if I would say not only in terms of negotiating peace but also to change reality on the ground, as we expect the Palestinians also to change reality on the ground when it comes to Israel security," Livni told reporters in a joint news conference with her French counterpart. The Quartet's Mideast envoy Tony Blair, who was also shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, visited the West Bank Palestinian refugee camp of Qalandiya on the outskirts of Ramallah. Blair, who met with local residents and examined the camp's infrastructures, said the Palestinians deserved a better future. "There's a whole set of things that have got to change. You need the political perspective, you need to help the economy, you need to build the Palestinian institutions of statehood. All of these things have to be done, but the important thing sometimes is to remember why we are doing it, and we are doing it so that people who are living in conditions like this, which are unacceptable for their future, have a different and better future," Blair told reporters. Blair's mandate to the Middle East includes the rehabilitation of Palestinians government institutions. Kouchner and Blair's visits to the region coincided with a visit by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who toured the Palestinian Civil Police Training Centre in the West Bank town of Jericho. Miliband stressed the importance of a well-trained Palestinian police to enforce law and order in the future independent Palestinian state. "Security is the top priority for the Palestinian leadership, and that's why we are building on the creation of this European mission here," Miliband said after observing Palestinian cadets in training. Miliband then travelled to Jerusalem where he held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. In recent months a string of diplomats have swarmed into the region for talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leadership ahead of the expected conference in late November, in Annapolis, Maryland.

ITN Source | November 18, 2007

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