US embassy cable - 05PARIS6297

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 006297 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/14/2015 
TAGS: PREL, KPAL, IS, FR 
SUBJECT: FM DOUSTE-BLAZY VISIT TO PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES 
AND ISRAEL 
 
 
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: MFA officials offered a generally upbeat 
readout of FM Douste-Blazy's September 6-8 visit to 
Palestinian territories and Israel, during which he announced 
new French bilateral aid for Gaza, with a potential value of 
40 million euros.  Douste-Blazy stressed to Palestinian 
officials the need to meet security challenges, especially in 
the wake of the Musa Arafat assassination, which took place 
not far from where the French FM was staying.  Douste-Blazy 
was sympathetic to Palestinian arguments that lack of lethal 
equipment hampered their capacity, and raised the issue with 
Israeli officials, who were unresponsive. Palestinian 
officials sought French support for maintaining international 
attention on Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and were 
reportedly pleased by public statements by the French FM 
reaffirming that Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem would 
form the basis of a future Palestinian state.  Douste-Blazy 
was less responsive to a Palestinian appeal to revive a UNGA 
emergency special session, and counseled against the move on 
the basis of lack of EU consensus.  PA President Abbas 
accepted a Chirac invitation to visit France, which MFA 
contacts say may take place as early as October.  Although 
Douste-Blazy raised concerns over the security barrier and 
settlement expansion with Israeli officials, MFA officials 
stressed that the overall purpose of the Israel portion of 
Douste-Blazy's visit was to reinforce the new entente in 
French-Israeli relations.  End summary. 
 
2. (C) MFA desk officer for Palestinian issues Mariam Diallo 
briefed poloff on the September 6-8 visit of French FM 
Douste-Blazy to Palestinian territories and Israel, which she 
described as a success, despite the tensions created by the 
assassination of Presidential security adviser Musa Arafat 
shortly after the FM's arrival.  While visiting Gaza, the 
West Bank and Jerusalem September 6-7, Douste-Blazy met with 
PA President Abbas, PM Ahmed Qorei, Deputy PM and Information 
Minister Nabil Sha'ath, FM Nasser al-Kidwa, Mustafa Bargouti 
and Sa'eb Erekat; in Israel on September 8 he met with PM 
Sharon, FM Shalom, and Deputy PM Shimon Peres, among others. 
Diallo was part of the MFA delegation which accompanied the 
minister. 
 
PALESTINIAN MEETINGS: NEW ASSISTANCE, SECURITY, UN ACTION 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
3. (C) Diallo reported that the main objective of 
Douste-Blazy's visit, on the Palestinian side, was to confirm 
the GoF's intention to help accompany Gaza withdrawal and 
rebuild Palestinian economic and security capacity via 
bilateral and EU assistance.  While in Gaza, the French FM 
announced several new French bilateral assistance projects 
for 2006, including a water treatment project, for which 
France would offer 12 million euros in financing (with 
another 25 million euros to be provided by the European 
Investment Bank); job creation programs, valued at 12 million 
euros; support for rebuilding Gaza City, also valued at 12 
million euros; and smaller projects to include mental health 
programs for youth, training programs for doctors at Shifa 
hospital, and cooperation with social welfare NGO's. 
Douste-Blazy also confirmed French intent to assist in the 
rebuilding of Gaza port, and brought along a French ports 
expert to meet with Palestinian interlocutors.  Diallo said 
the GoF had not committed to a specific sum on assisting port 
reconstruction and was still in reflection mode on issue. 
She summed up that the GoF planned some 40 million in 
bilateral assistance for the Palestinians in 2006, a 
significant increase from typical annual assistance levels of 
about 25 million euros.  She also reiterated the GoF's full 
support for Quartet Special Envoy Wolfensohn's plan, a point 
made publicly by Douste-Blazy, who hailed Wolfensohn's 
"remarkable work" during a speech in Gaza. 
 
4.  (C) Another important aspect of Douste-Blazy's message to 
the Palestinians, according to Diallo, was to emphasize the 
urgent need for the PA to assert control over security in 
Gaza, its number one challenge in the wake of the Israeli 
withdrawal, which would also be a test of their credibility. 
The assassination of Musa Arafat, which took place shortly 
after the FM's late September 6 arrival in Gaza and within a 
few hundred meters from where he was overnighting, reinforced 
the urgency of Douste-Blazy's message on security. 
Palestinian officials, in response, stressed that they had 
the men, but lacked the means on security, describing 
themselves as outgunned by criminal gangs and militant groups 
and seriously lacking in weapons and ammunition.  Diallo said 
the French FM was sympathetic to the Palestinian argument, 
and later raised the issue with Israeli interlocutors, who 
were however unresponsive on the issue.  Nevertheless, Diallo 
said the GoF hoped that Israel might show greater flexibility 
on allowing limited, controlled lethal equipment transfers to 
Palestinian security services in the context of the EU police 
training mission expected to begin in January 2006.  She 
added that the GoF would likely contribute several officers 
to the mission, though no decisions had been made yet on 
numbers. 
 
5.  (C) Palestinian officials, for their part, stressed to 
Douste-Blazy their concerns over the Rafah crossing issue and 
the need for the international community to remain focused on 
the occupation of the West Bank, which could not be 
considered separately from Gaza.  She said Palestinian 
officials were pleased by statements by the French FM 
describing the basis of a future Palestinian state as 
including the territory of Gaza, the West Bank, and East 
Jerusalem.  The GoF also accepted the argument that Gaza 
should still be considered as occupied, and considers Gaza 
part of one entity with the West Bank under international law 
and the Oslo accords.  (Note: The MFA spokesperson September 
12, in response to a press question, reiterated that the GoF 
would continue to view Gaza as still under occupation until 
the final borders of a Palestinian state were resolved.  End 
note.)  On border control, Douste-Blazy floated the idea of 
having EU customs officials help monitor control of Gaza 
ports of entry as a compromise between Israeli and 
Palestinian views. 
 
6.  (C) Diallo reported that FM al-Kidwa in particular sought 
French support for reviving in October an UNGA emergency 
special session on Israeli activity in the West Bank, with 
another possible recourse to the International Court of 
Justice.  Diallo reported that FM Douste-Blazy sought to 
dissuade the Palestinians from renewed UN action, arguing 
that lack of consensus, particularly within the EU, would 
show the Palestinian side to be losing votes.  Despite the 
French discouragement, Diallo described the Palestinians as 
still attached to the idea of UN action. 
 
7. (C) Diallo confirmed press reports that PA President Abbas 
had accepted an invitation from President Chirac to visit 
France; timing was unclear, but the visit could take place as 
early as October.  Diallo commented that Abbas showed an 
encouraging evolution in his views of PM Sharon, whom he 
described as someone whose word can be trusted, though Sharon 
had not been saying anything encouraging lately.  At the same 
time, Diallo described Abbas and other Palestinian officials 
as viewing themselves in a "race against time" to implement 
reforms, while the security barrier and annexations in East 
Jerusalem changed facts on the ground in the West Bank. 
 
ISRAEL DISCUSSIONS: SECURITY BARRIER, SETTLEMENTS 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
8. (C) Although Diallo stressed that the Israel portion of 
visit was intended to reinforce the recent France-Israel 
rapprochement, she focused on the more contentious aspects of 
the FM's discussions with Israeli officials.  She noted that 
the French FM raised the security barrier with Sharon and 
other Israeli officials, stressing the humanitarian 
repercussions.  Diallo described Israeli officials as unmoved 
on humanitarian considerations and focused entirely on the 
security imperative behind the barrier, which they stressed 
was temporary in nature and could be dismantled at any point 
negotiations resumed.  Diallo said GOI officials offered 
little response to Douste-Blazy's raising concerns on 
settlement expansion in the West Bank, beyond noting that 
there could be other withdrawals once the Palestinians showed 
that they could assume responsible control of what had been 
given to them.  In this context, PM Sharon told the French FM 
that he was expecting 100 percent effort, if not necessarily 
100 percent results, from the Palestinian side.  Diallo 
described all of Douste-Blazy's official Israeli 
interlocutors, including Shimon Peres, as being discouraging 
on prospects for future territorial concessions in East 
Jerusalem and unified, in suggesting the likely eventual 
annexation of Maale Adumim. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
9. (C) Diallo summed up that Douste-Blazy's visit to Gaza so 
soon after the departure of Israeli settlers, combined with 
the July PM Sharon visit to Paris on the eve of the launch of 
disengagement, meant that "France was back" on the 
international scene on Middle East peace issues.  Other MFA 
officials have been more circumspect, with a more senior MFA 
official conceding to us on the eve of the FM's visit that 
the GoF did not enjoy the same close relationship with Abbas 
as it had with Arafat.  The same official complained that the 
current PA president was too focused on the U.S. and Russia, 
while overlooking Europe.  The French invitation for Abbas to 
visit France will presumably seek to remedy this gap.  For 
now, increased French activism on Israeli-Palestinian issues 
is not generating unhelpful initiatives, as the French are 
reiterating the need to support the Wolfensohn plan and 
re-energize the roadmap, and have toned down earlier calls 
for an international conference, which is no longer a GoF 
talking point.  Meanwhile, the announcement of increased 
French bilateral assistance for Gaza is an encouraging 
development and long overdue.  End comment. 
STAPLETON