SA to participate in the Paris Middle East conference

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Cape Town – The President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas has invited South Africa to be part of a consultative meeting that has been set up with the aim of resolving the Middle East conflict next month.

The announcement was made when President Jacob Zuma hosted President Abbas for high-level and bilateral talks at Tuynhuys in Cape Town, on Wednesday.

The consultative meeting of foreign ministers, which is an initiative of the French government, was organised with an aim of ending an impasse between Israel and Palestine, which has led to many civilians losing their lives along the Gaza strip.

Briefing journalists shortly after the bilateral, Palestine Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat said following the bilateral, the Palestine President has asked South Africa to participate in the Paris meeting, which has now been rescheduled to 3 June.

South Africa has in the past sent envoys to broker a peace deal in the Middle East.

“President Abbas informed President Zuma that South Africa will be invited to attend the consultative ministerial meeting to be held in Paris on the 3rd of June with the participation of 24 countries including now, officially, South Africa.

“South Africa is a country of peace, South Africa is a country that inspires all of us. We can count of South Africa because South Africa has always stood for a two state solution, the State of Palestine to live side-by-side with the state of Israel in peace and security,” he said.

The Chief Negotiator was accompanied by Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe, who indicated that South Africa remains committed to a two state solution to resolve the challenges that pertain to the Middle East.

“The President has reconfirmed the support from the people of South Africa to the two state solution to Palestine, and we are also very excited that if invited, we will be able to participate in this French initiative, which is going to be taking place on the 3rd of June, where Ministerial Committee of Ministers of Foreign Affairs will be convened in Paris,” Minister Radebe said.

In a statement after the meeting, President Zuma said South Africa remains friends with the people Palestine.

“The visit today enabled us to further gain a better understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian situation and also to probe, to get more details of the French Initiative as a mechanism to resolve the longstanding Middle East impasse as well as to hear whether there was any role that South Africa could play as proposed today by President Abbas,” he said.

The Working Visit took place at a time of heightened tension between Palestinians and Israelis, increased construction of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian lands, and escalating frustration among Palestinians due to lack of visible progress on the Middle East Peace Process.

South Africa and Palestine enjoy cordial relations that date back to the days of the anti-apartheid struggle. South Africa recognised the State of Palestine in 1995 and was among the more than 200 states that voted for the hoisting of the Palestinian National flag at the UN Headquarters.

Last month, the City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor Parks Tau unveiled a huge statue of the late President Nelson Mandela in the centre of Ramallah City.

The statue was donated by the City of Johannesburg as a sign of friendship between the two cities.

Since 1995, South Africa and Palestine have signed a number of bilateral agreements anchored on the Joint Commission of Co-operation that was established in 1995.

In 2014, at the height of the Gaza War, President Zuma appointed former Minister Zola Skweyiya and former Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad as Special Envoys in the Middle East Peace Process. – SAnews.gov.za

President Jacob Zuma hosts President Abbas