French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was in New York on Friday March 27th to lead a discussion at the United Nations Security Council on the subject of persecuted minorities in the Middle East. However, in comments he made to reporters, the focus was on ways to keep the search for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state solution alive and the prospects for an imminent nuclear deal with Iran.
Mr. Fabius told reporters that France planned in "the coming weeks" to begin discussions with other Security Council members in an effort to revive its proposed resolution regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The objective of the resolution, he said, would be to lay out internationally suggested parameters for a two-state solution. "France will be part and parcel in proposing a resolution in the U.N.," he added.
"Today nothing has moved forward, still development of settlements, the Palestinians are in a more and more difficult situation and we cannot stay like that," Fabius was quoted by Reuters as saying earlier in the day. He was reinforcing the message of the UN's outgoing top Mideast envoy, Robert Serry, who had told the Security Council on March 26th that Security Council involvement in providing a framework for negotiations may be the last hope for a two-state solution to be achieved.
In an apparent allusion to the evolving position of the United States, Foreign Minister Fabius said that "I hope that the partners who were reluctant will not be reluctant anymore." The United States had opposed a failed resolution put forth by Jordan on behalf of the Palestinians last December, as well as a purported compromise draft proposed by France along with the United Kingdom and Germany that never saw the light of day. Both versions contained deadlines for the completion of negotiations for an independent Palestinian state. France ended up voting for the more one-sided Palestinian-Jordan draft.
The Obama administration wanted to wait until after the Israeli election, which was held earlier this month, before considering any action by the UN Security Council to prod the parties back to the negotiating table. The administration had hoped that a left-of-center government would be elected in place of a coalition led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but it was not to be. When Mr. Netanyahu was re-elected after he had made a statement that appeared to reject any notion of a two-state solution, President Obama and administration officials indicated they were re-evaluating past U.S. policies that had kept the Security Council from inserting itself into the negotiating process. They no longer trusted the Israeli prime minister's commitment to a genuine two-state solution despite Mr. Netanyahu's post-election attempts to clarify his position. Thus, the Obama administration is leaving the door open to considering some sort of Security Council action setting a framework for two-state solution negotiations even if it favored the Palestinians' position on the key issues. However, the administration is not yet showing its hand publicly. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said as quoted by Reuters: "We're not going to get ahead of any decisions about what the United States would do with regard to potential action at the U.N. Security Council."
Perhaps in a bid to mollify the Obama administration and dissuade it from following France's lead at the UN, Israel announced that it was going to release hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds that Israel had been withholding since January. "We hope that both sides will be able to build on this and work together to lower tensions and find a constructive path forward," State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said in response to the announcement. Whether it will help lower tensions between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Obama remains to be seen.
On the subject of the current negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, Mr. Fabius stressed that getting the content of an agreement right was more important than meeting a March 31st deadline. The important thing was to obtain a "robust" agreement that ensured Iran would not seek or possess a nuclear weapon. Significant issues remained to be resolved regarding transparency, the duration of the agreement, the centrifuges and the type of nuclear-related research and development that Iran would be permitted to conduct. There were still "obstacles to be overcome," he said.
France has been taking the toughest public stance amongst the countries negotiating with Iran on what would constitute an acceptable "robust" deal. Its officials have had discussions with Israeli officials regarding Israel's concerns with some of the reported terms that the U.S. has agreed to so far. The Obama administration is not only upset with Israel over its opposition to what is being negotiated with Iran. According to sources quoted by the Washington Free Beacon, the Obama administration has been bullying the French into going along with the concessions being offered to Iran. "A recent phone call between Obama and [French President] Hollande was reported as tense as the leaders disagreed over the White House's accommodation of Iranian red lines," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
President Obama is turning into a one-man wrecking ball of America's historically close relationships with key allies such as Israel and France, all because he is willing to roll the dice on the Iranian regime's word. Not to worry, however. Obama's closest adviser, Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, who reportedly met in secret with Iranian officials for a year before formal negotiations commenced, will vouch for Ayatollah Khamenei. As to those in Congress and among America's allies who dare to oppose her boss's decisions, Valerie Jarrett summed up their fate back in 2012: "There will be hell to pay." Along with coddling or turning a blind eye towards America's real enemies and lacking any coherent strategy to deal effectively with Islamic jihad, dissing America's key allies pretty much sums up President Obama's disjointed foreign policy.
