Kerry to Netanyahu: US won't support new UN resolution after Paris parley
Netanyahu told Kerry that damage has already been done to Israel by the anti-settlement resolution that the US allowed to pass in the Security Council last month.
By HERB KEINONUpdated: JANUARY 15, 2017 17:34Netanyahu slams Middle East conference as it begins in Paris
The United States will oppose any efforts to codify any decree that may emerge from the Middle East peace conference on Sunday into a UN Security Council resolution, US Secretary of State John Kerry told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone conversation.Israeli sources said that Kerry called Netanyahu from the conference on Sunday to brief him on the efforts the US was making at the conference to soften the language of the final resolution.According to the sources, Netanyahu told Kerry that damage has already been done to Israel by the anti-settlement resolution that the US allowed to pass in the Security Council last month, and that no more harm should be allowed to be caused to Israel from the Paris summit.Kerry, the sources said, assured Netanyahu that there would be no follow-up to the Paris conference in the Security Council.Earlier on Sunday, Netanyahu said the conference in Paris was “futile” and the “final palpitations” of yesterday’s world.The summit, Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, was “coordinated between the French and the Palestinians with the goal of trying to impose conditions on Israel that are not compatible with Israel's national interests.”Netanyahu said that the conference, which he has adamantly opposed, makes peace more distant because it hardens the Palestinian positions and pushes them further away from entering direct negotiations without preconditions.In an apparent reference to the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump this coming Friday, Netanyahu said the conference is the “final palpitations of yesterday's world. Tomorrow will look a lot different, and tomorrow is very close.”Jerusalem is confident that the Trump administration will take a significantly different position on the Mideast diplomatic process than its predecessor.French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault opened the conference in Paris, attended by delegations from some 70 countries – including US Secretary of State John Kerry – by stressing that the two-state solution is the only alternative able to to guarantee peace and security to Israel, the Palestinians and the region.