PARIS (EJP)---French President Nicolas Sarkozy meets with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in Paris to discuss bilateral relations, re-launching the Mideast peace process and other regional issues, the Elysee Palace said.
According to the Israeli media, Netanyahu plans to laud Sarkozy for his firm stance against Iran’s nuclear program and ask the French leader to help jumpstart the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
The meeting is scheduled at 5:30 pm.
Sarkozy invited Netanyahu to Paris during a phone conversation the two leaders held last week.
Netanyahu, who travels from Washington where he met on Monday with US President Barack Obama at the White House and addressed the General Assembly of the Federation of US Jewish Communities, is likely to stress that Israel is willing to go a long way to achieve peace.
The election of Nicolas Sarkozy in May 2007 led to a significant warming in ties between France and Israel, with France’s leader saying at the time that he would refuse to greet any world leader who doesn’t recognize Israel right to exist.
But while relations between the two nations are strong, serious differences in policy are outstanding.
On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner criticized Israel for what he called its lack of "desire for peace.” "We think that a freeze on settlements, that's to say no more colonisation while talks are ongoing, would be absolutely indispensable," he told France Inter radio station. "We need talks and the peace process to restart."
The minister underlined "there is real different political opinions" between Sarkozy and Netanyahu.
"Before, there was a great peace movement" among Israelis,” Kouchner told France Inter radio station. "It seems to me that this aspiration has disappeared."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said in response: "If he really thinks that Israelis have given up hope, which is arguable, than he should not evade the question of why - what disappointed them so."
Despite Kouchner's words, Netanyahu has made several public statements in the last few weeks in which he has said that Israel is willing to restart peace talks with the Palestinians immediately.
Last week, France abstained in the vote of a UN General Assembly vote to adopt the Goldstone Report which accuses Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza.
The resolution was approved by 114 countries, 18 opposed and 44 abstained. France abstained like a majority of EU countries while the United States and Germany opposed the resolution.
According to French President Sarkozy Jerusalem should become the capital of two states while Israel considers that the city must remain its "undivided capital".
The Palestinians have insisted that they will not talk with Israel until it freezes all construction in the settlements in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem. Israel has agreed to curb settlement construction, but not completely, and insists that it will not accept preconditions for the talks. The US has accepted this stance but France has not.
Last week, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rendered the prospects of new talks more problematic when he announced that he did not intend to seek re-election in the vote he had called for January 24.
On Tuesday, President Sarkozy telephoned Abbas and urged him to stay in power. He encouraged him “to pursue his actions in the service of the Palestinians and of peace," according to the Elysee Palace.
Sarkozy "assured him of France's active support to truly re-start the peace process based on the ground rules agreed by the sides and the international community.”
The French president's office also announced that Sarkozy will meet on Friday with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad for the third time since the two men have come to power for talks to focus on developments in the Mideast, bilateral relations and the European Union association agreement with Syria.