Palestinian, Sudanese officials discuss French peace initiative
July 20, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday briefed Sudanese officials on the French initiative to bring back Israeli- Palestinian peace process into international agenda.
On Wednesday Abbas briefed First Vice President, Bakri Hassan Salih, on the ongoing efforts to mobilize Arab and international support to the French initiative for direct peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
The French government since several months proposed to resume peace talks between Palestinians and Israeli on a two-state solution, saying the status quo prevails waiting for a powder keg to explode.
However Israeli government declined the French initiative and demanded that the direct talks should be held with no prior conditions between the parties and the (Palestinian Authority’s) responsibility to combat terror and incitement.
The two parties stopped direct talks since the collapse of U.S.-brokered talks in 2014.
Following another meeting with the visiting president, Presidential Assistant Ibrahim Mahmoud told reporters that Sudan supports Palestinian people to get their rights and ending injustice.
AFRICA
In a separate meeting, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said he had discussed at length with his counterpart Ibrahim Ghandour ways to develop a Palestinian strategy to strengthen bilateral relations with the African countries.
Maliki said that the discussions also touched on the African tour of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to several East African countries.
We “have identical views with respect to future action,” he further said.
The Palestinian minister also praised the position of the Sudanese government and its support to the Palestinian authority. He said Khartoum has been and continues to support the Palestinian cause and is working to correct a lot of positions.
Earlier this month, Netanyahu visited Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Also, he met with several other African leaders at a meeting in Uganda.
(ST)