US embassy cable - 05PARIS203

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