FRENCH BELIEVE MAJOR PUSH ON ANTI-ISRAEL UNGA

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 004743 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/19/2012 TAGS: PREL KPAL FR IS SUBJECT: FRENCH BELIEVE MAJOR PUSH ON ANTI-ISRAEL UNGA RESOLUTIONS PREMATURE BUT HOPE ANNAPOLIS DYNAMIC WILL MAKE IT POSSIBLE IN 2008 REF: STATE 159386 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso ns 1.4. (b),(d). ¶1. (C) We passed reftel points November 27 to French MFA desk officer for Israel/Palestinian affairs Adrien Pinelli, who had no immediate response but said he would pass them to the appropriate people in his immediate chain of command as well as to the MFA,s IO directorate. We followed up with DAS-equivalent for the Levant Ludovic Pouille on December 4, i.e., shortly after his return from the Annapolis meeting on Middle East peace. He read through the points and, after we emphasized our desire to exploit the spirit of Annapolis to change the dynamic in the UNGA with respect to these resolutions, Pouille responded &Too late!8 He elaborated by making the following points: --Although France agreed that the new dynamic stemming from the process launched at Annapolis should change things at the UN, it was too soon to do anything this year. Pouille said it was very likely things would be quite different next year if it appears the Israelis and Palestinians are making real progress and could meet the end of 2008 deadline for an overall agreement. He suggested that the UNGA, which voted to create separate Jewish and Arab states in 1947, would be the ideal venue for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to sign an agreement bringing into force their two-state solution. --The key reason the demarche was too late was because the EU had already held its annual consultations with Arab delegations about the Middle East items on the UNGA,s agenda. Pouille said the EU had secured all the concessions it was going to wring out of the Arabs, who were not inclined to bargain away any of the leverage they felt they had over Israel through the resolutions or the bodies whose activities were sustained by UNGA decisions. He agreed that some of the bodies were indeed obsolete and throwbacks to a more confrontational period. Pouille repeated, however that the EU had decided not to press the Arabs over them this year to see what transpired in 2008. --Having served prior to his current posting in New York as the lead at the French mission on Middle East issues, Pouille related his personal disappointment over the U.S. decision to withdraw its draft UNSC resolution in support of Annapolis. The positive energy coming out of Annapolis was impressive, and a strong UNSC endorsement of its work would have gone a long way to affect the climate surrounding Middle East issues in New York as well as iin the region. ¶2. (C) We spoke December 12 with French MFA IO desk officer for Middle East issues Salina Grenet, who, after joking that the subject of anti-Israel resolutions and actions within the UN system was her &cross to bear,8 confirmed what Pouille had said. In fact, she deferred to him as the true expert in the MFA on the issue, given how much he had worked on the issues in New York previously. Grenet, for her part, noted that the discussions with the Arabs this year had been particularly difficult. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm STAPLETON