French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who returned February 17 after a two-day visit to the Palestinian territories and Israel, believes that he was heard by Israel when he brought up a number of important issues relative to the peace process and Palestinian development, officials here said.
Kouchner raised a series of questions relative to slow Israeli compliance with the commitments to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian areas, including Gaza, and failure to give a strong political signal that there is progress on key issues like on the need to freeze settlements.
"He had the feeling he was understood particularly on settlements," said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani. The French official also noted that Israel had reacted immediately and positively to a request to deliver cement supplies to Gaza to help repair a damaged sewage plant that has ruptured and overflowed, creating a health hazard for both Israelis and Palestinians.
During his talks with Israeli officials on Sunday, Kouchner had also broached the issue of lack of progress in Palestinian, economic projects due to Israeli security blockades.
He once again emphasized the need to move forward with core negotiations to arrive at a peace agreement by the end of 2008 in line with aspirations of the Annapolis conference last November and the financing accord that raised USD 7.7 billion for the Palestinians in Paris last December.
Kouchner stressed in this third trip to the region that concrete progress must be seen on the ground in order to get popular support for the international agreements.
"In this framework, the Minister regretted the lack of progress on the ground in certain economic development projects because of the blockades linked to the keeping in place of hundreds of road checkpoints in the West Bank and because of the blockade of Gaza," Andreani said here earlier this week after Kouchners return.
The French minister "stressed that it is indispensable to create a climate of confidence" and for this "a total freeze on settlements is necessary," officials here said.
Israel has promised on several occasions to listen to this wisdom and to freeze new settlement building but these promises have remained vain on several occasions, both before and after Annapolis.