Abbas due in Paris to hammer out crunch peace solution

 Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Tuesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will head to France next week, in synchronization with holding the Paris international peace conference.

The Foreign Minister said that Abbas will be in Paris between Jan. 14 and Jan. 16 to meet with French President Francois Hollande who is expected to brief him on the outcomes of the Paris peace conference and the following steps.

Abbas is also expected to hold a series of meeting with foreign ministers during his visit to Paris, affirmed Malki.

An international peace conference is expected to be held in Paris on Jan. 15, attended by 70 foreign ministers and UN organizations, but no representatives of Palestinians or Israelis.

Paris hosted an international ministerial meeting June 3, attended by the foreign ministers of 25 countries, including four Arab countries, which debated the revival of the stalled peace process between Israel and Palestine.

The meeting was held based on an initiative launched by France a few months ago to hold an international conference to look into an international mechanism to end the Palestinian- Israeli conflict based on the two-state solution.

Israel declared it is against the French initiative and said it is committed to bilateral negotiations in order to realize peace without preconditions.

The peace talks between Israel and Palestine have ben stalled since April 2014. The U.S.-sponsored talks that lasted for nine months achieved no tangible results.

source: Xinhua