France Wants International Mideast Conference This Year

France said Monday it wants to organize an international conference before the end of the year to present Israel and the Palestinians with a package of incentives to reach a peace agreement.

Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said at a briefing on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting that “this week must be a moment of political mobilization that we can reach that goal.”

Ayrault’s push for an international conference in France follows an announcement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Sept. 8 that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed “in principle” to meet in Moscow for talks.

But the wide gaps between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas raise doubts about the prospect for any meeting — and if there is one, whether they would make any progress.

Abbas demands that Israel halt all construction in eastern Yerushalayim and in Yehudah and Shomron and release about two dozen Palestinian prisoners before any meeting. Netanyahu rejects the preconditions.

Ayrault said several countries, including Egypt, Russia and the United States, are trying to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians. He said he told them that “all efforts are in fact complementary of the French initiative.”

A statement from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s office said Kerry met Abbas in New York to discuss “our shared goal of a two-state solution.” It said Kerry voiced “concern over trends on the ground, including the recent surge in violence and settlement activity.”

France hosted an international meeting in Paris in June, attended by more than two dozen Western and Arab countries, to try to come up with a new strategy for Mideast peace and revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been all but dead for over two years. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were not invited. The participants welcomed the “prospect” of a conference with both parties later this year.

Ayrault hosted a closed meeting Monday for officials from the countries that attended the June conference.

Russia has clamored unsuccessfully for years to host a meeting of the two leaders but Russia’s Foreign Ministry gave no date or agenda for the future get-together.

The United States has maintained a stranglehold over all Mideast peace processes since the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. For years, the U.S. was seen by Israelis and Palestinians as the indispensable mediator and only power that could guarantee a two-state solution. But the Obama administration doesn’t appear to enjoy that recognition any longer.