French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjourné stated his opposition to the “forced displacement” of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip. Israeli bombardment has driven hundreds of thousands to the border, he added.
France’s top diplomat Stephane Séjourné said Sunday he rejects the “forced displacement” of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip, where Israeli bombardment has pushed hundreds of thousands against the border.
At the start of his first Middle East tour as foreign minister, Séjourné addressed his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry in a joint press conference, acknowledging Cairo’s concern “over forced displacement into your territory.”
As Qatari and Egyptian mediators press to seal a truce deal between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, Paris seeks to ensure “a ceasefire but also to prepare for the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza,” Séjourné said.
Since 2007, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have led rival governments, with the latter ruling parts of the occupied West Bank under president Mahmoud Abbas.
Egypt has since October warned against a forced transfer of Gazans into its Sinai Peninsula. Cairo has kept its border effectively closed as more than half of Gaza’s population has sought safety in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, according to the United Nations.
Séjourné said he told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday of France’s desire “for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and restarting talks for a… two-state solution,” according to a post on social media.
Asked about France’s plans to recognize a Palestinian state, the minister said the step would mark “the finalization of a political process.”
That process, he said, “must lead to this, that’s the logic.”
“The whole question is when, at what moment and under what conditions,” he continued, adding that Gaza would be “attached to the future Palestinian state.”
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
