Egypt supports France efforts to revive Mideast peace talks

Egypt has been supportive of all efforts exerted by friendly France to launch an initiative to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, the foreign minister said Sunday. 

Sameh Shoukry thanked Paris for hosting an international conference - in which he was speaking - with the aim to reach a real and final settlement to the decades' long Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

Failure to reach a solution to the Palestinian problem is the main cause of tensions in the Middle East, Shoukry told the conference. It is also an obstacle to development and fuel of terrorism in the region, he added.

"I have no doubt that you agree with me that renewing hope of involvement of the Palestinian and Israeli sides in a serious negotiation process ... to reach a final settlement to establish an independent Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is the correct path," Shoukry said.

"We're not here to invent a new basis for a settlement," the top diplomat said, reminding "we already have references that we all know, whether international resolutions - such as No. 242 and No. 338 - or the outcome of previous agreements reached by the two sides of the conflict."

"We came here ... to reaffirm the importance of settling this conflict that has been going on for decades."

Source: MENA