CAIRO (AP) – Egypt welcomed foreign ministers from Germany, France and Jordan on Monday to discuss ways to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, a week before President-elect Joe Biden took office.
In a joint statement, the ministers called for practical steps to launch “credible negotiations” between Israel and the Palestinians over obtaining a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as their capital in the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Ministers said they were ready to work with the United States to facilitate negotiations that lead to “a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the region”.
“There is a desire to see a close relationship with the United States in the revival of the peace process that will have to take place at some point,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian at a joint press conference after the meeting.
Palestinians suffered several setbacks under President Donald Trump’s outgoing administration and complained about what they call Washington’s pro-Israel measures. They said, however, that they are ready to work with the next Biden government.
Trump dropped the Palestinian Authority, recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv there. His government also cut financial assistance to the Palestinians and reversed the course of illegitimacy for Israeli settlements on land claimed by the Palestinians.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi met with ministers on Monday, according to his office.
The Egyptian leader said that the efforts of the four countries aim to break the impasse in the peace process in the Middle East, “taking into account the political changes in the regional and international phases”. He apparently referred to the election of Biden and the establishment of ties with Israel by four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
At the news conference, Le Drian urged Israel and the Palestinians to commit to a solution to the conflict and to refrain from taking unilital measures.
There was no immediate comment from Israel or the Palestinians. On Monday, Israel moved forward with plans to build 800 new homes for settlers in the occupied West Bank, a move that is likely to irritate Palestinians and could damage ties with the next Biden government.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said last month that the Palestinian Authority was ready to cooperate with the Biden government and asked Israel to return to negotiations based on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
For more than three decades, Palestinians sought an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territories taken over by Israel in the 1967 war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but imposed a paralyzing blockade when the Palestinian militant group Hamas took over. power of Abbas forces in 2007.
There have been no substantive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was first elected more than a decade ago, and the two sides are fiercely divided over the central issues of the conflict.