GOF OFFICIALS UPBEAT ON PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS, BUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000203

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2015
TAGS: PREL KPAL IS FR
SUBJECT: GOF OFFICIALS UPBEAT ON PALESTINIAN ELECTIONS, BUT
DOWNBEAT ON UK-PROPOSED LONDON MEETING

REF: A. 04 PARIS 8951

B. 04 PARIS 7567

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Paul Mailhot, reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d).


1. (C) Summary: GoF officials are stressing to us privately
their high degree of satisfaction with Palestinian elections,
but express concern that the post-elections follow-up will
focus too much on what is demanded of the Palestinian side
without pressing Israel to make gestures to the new
Palestinian leadership. The French stress that they would
like to see more rapid movement toward final status issues
than the U.S. and UK envision, but claim that they have no
initiatives in this regard. French officials privately
question the utility of the UK-proposed conference on
Palestinian reform, which they will support though they view
it as duplicative and would have preferred an international
conference with Israeli participation. In an effort to
re-engage on Middle East peace issues, FM Barnier will visit
Israel and the Occupied Territories January 30-31 for
meetings with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials. End
summary.


2. (SBU) Senior GoF officials offered effusive
congratulations January 10 to Mahmoud Abbas on his election
victory and stressed the GOF's determination to work with the
Palestinians, Israelis and international community to seize
the window of opportunity on Middle East peace. FM Barnier,
in January 10 press comments, described the election results
as a "victory for democracy" and a "first victory for peace"
and stressed GoF readiness to help Abbas proceed with
necessary reforms and prepare for Gaza withdrawal. Barnier
also offered a positive assessment of PM Sharon, repeating
his earlier description of the Gaza disengagement plan as
"courageous" (ref b) and declaring that Sharon was up to the
historic task now before him. Barnier also repeated his
earlier statement (ref a) that the "test" of the
transatlantic relationship would be our collective capacity
to relaunch the Middle East peace process. Meanwhile,
President Chirac, in a congratulatory letter to Abbas made
public by the Elysee, commended Abbas for his courage in
promoting democracy and rule of law, and pledged that France
would be by his side "more than ever" in the quest for peace.
Chirac also encouraged Abbas to visit Paris at the earliest
opportunity.


3. (C) In a discussion with us on Palestinian and
Lebanon-related issues (septel) January 10, MFA
DAS-equivalent for Egypt/Levant issues Christian Jouret
stressed GoF satisfaction with the January 9 election
results. Jouret praised Palestinian handling of the
electoral process, which, with the plurality of candidates,
showed that the Palestinians were ahead of other Arab
governments in building a democratic foundation for
governance. Jouret also commended Israeli facilitation of
the elections as "pretty good."


4. (C) After briefly discussing the election results, Jouret
raised the UK-proposed meeting on Palestinian reforms, to
take place in March. Jouret questioned the utility of the
London meeting, which the GoF viewed as duplicative of other
international efforts, such as December meetings in Oslo
which had already reaffirmed the international commitment to
help the Palestinians. Although the GoF would "go along"
with the UK proposal, France would have much preferred for
the London meeting to be a true international conference, as
called for in the roadmap, with Israeli participation.
Jouret quipped that the GoF was a fan of international
conferences in general, as the U.S. was well aware in the
Iraq context. He added that GoF interpreted the London
meeting largely as a UK effort to boost Blair's domestic
standing, and some in the GoF viewed Blair as having become
the U.S. "spokesman" in pressing the Palestinians to do more.
(Comment: The UK embassy has expressed private frustration
to us over their efforts to consult with the French on the
proposed London meeting, and told us the French were annoyed
by the manner in which Blair announced the meeting during his
recent trip to the region. End comment.) Jouret summed up
that the GoF wanted to move faster than the U.S. and UK
towards final status issues; he stressed, nonetheless, that
the GoF had no initiatives to move the process forward.
France remained concerned that waiting for the Palestinians
to complete reforms that would take years to achieve, in the
absence of gestures from the Israeli side, would leave the
process open to disruption from Hamas and others. The GoF
also remained worried, despite its positive public comments
on PM Sharon and his Gaza disengagement plan, that "Gaza
first would be Gaza last," and that the GoI would remain
content to withdraw from Gaza and halt the process there.


5. (C) Probed for details on what new initiatives France
might take to help the Palestinians, Jouret offered few
specifics. He stressed that the Solana Plan remained the
framework for European engagement to facilitate the Gaza
withdrawal, and said that France would like to do
"something." He added that Israeli resistance to a European
role on security remained an impediment to further European
engagement, and claimed that recent comments by PM Blair
suggested that the U.S. was the only potential player on
Palestinian security, as though Europe did not exist.


6. (C) On a more positive note, Jouret reported that FM
Barnier would visit Israel and the Occupied Territories
January 30-31 to meet with senior officials, including PM
Sharon, FM Shalom, Vice Minister Peres, President Abbas,
FM Shaath and PLC Speaker Fattouh. Jouret stressed that the
GoF felt that it was the right time to re-engage with the
parties and quipped that Barnier was perhaps the last
European FM to travel to the region in the wake of Arafat's
death. On this point, he said that Barnier felt that he
could wait to travel to the region to greet the new
Palestinian leadership, since France had played such a major
role in Arafat's final days. Jouret compared the French
attitude with Spanish FM Moratinos, whom he described as
nearly seeking to "kiss Arafat's cadaver" during a December
2004 visit to the region. Jouret added that the Barnier trip
would also serve the GoF's long-standing objective of
improving bilateral relations with Israel, which was the
focus of a Barnier visit to Israel in October 2004. Two
weeks after the Barnier trip, FM Shalom planned to visit
Paris in mid-February to inaugurate, alongside the French FM,
the new Israeli Embassy chancery building in Paris.


Leach