DEMARCHE DELIVERED: MEETING ON SPAIN'S MIDDLE EAST

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 007507 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/22/2016 TAGS: FR IS LE PGOV PREL SP SY SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED: MEETING ON SPAIN'S MIDDLE EAST PEACE INITIATIVE REF: A. STATE 190259 ¶B. PARIS POINTS OF NOVEMBER 15 Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche on November 22 to Herve Besancenot, MFA DAS equivalent for the Levant. In response, Besancenot made the following three points: First, the isolation of the Hamas-led PA government is radicalizing the Palestinian population; second, a continuation of the status quo will weaken, rather than strengthen, President Abbas; and third, a PA national unity government's embrace of the Quartet Principles "should be a process, not a precondition." Elaborating on the last point, Besancenot said it was unrealistic and counterproductive to make Hamas a yes or no offer. Instead, one should involve Hamas in a diplomatic process that would produce a phased acceptance of those principles over time. ¶2. (C) Taking a swipe at the Roadmap, Besancenot claimed that Israeli insistence on the sequencing of security preconditions (while Israel ignored its own obligations on settlements) had "killed" the Roadmap. Besancenot, who we have found to be the most ardent proponent of classical French Arabist thinking at the Quai d'Orsay, summed up the U.S. approach to the peace process as "catastrophic." ¶3. (C) Comment: As we have noted previously (Ref B),the French have been distancing themselves of late from requiring explicit Palestinian acceptance of the Quartet Principles, a requirement which they see as hampering their ability to add dynamism to the peace process -- with the emphasis on proces. Given France's sense of its role in the Middle East, it is inevitable that they will be increasingly tempted by proposals such as Zapatero's. Whether Chirac fully subscribes to the Spanish ideas is almost beside the point. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON