Tel Aviv - Israel should make a gesture, even a simple one, on the issue of settlements to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Wednesday as he criticised Israeli construction plans in occupied East Jerusalem. "France's position is simple," Kouchner, speaking in French, told Israel Radio."We are in favour of halting the settlements ... I think they are an obstacle."
Kouchner was reacting to the Jerusalem Municipality's approval of plans to build 900 homes in Gilo, an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem.
The minister, who began a round of talks with Israeli officials Wednesday morning, had earlier said that Israel had to quickly advance the peace process.
"The coming days are a test for the Israeli government, since time is not on the side of both parties (to the Israel-Palestinian peace process)," Israeli media quoted Kouchner as saying as he met Israeli Minorities Minister Avishai Braverman.
Kouchner arrived in Israel after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday when he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks from the point they were at when suspended one year ago, rather than beginning from scratch.
He also called on Abbas to remain in office, saying his leadership of the Palestinian people was indispensable to the success of the peace process.
Abbas said last week he would not contest the next Palestinian Presidential elections, after Israel refused his demand to freeze settlement activity in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank, which the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said initially, in response to the Palestinian and US demand, that while Israel would construct no new settlements, it would build inside existing ones, to accomodate population expansion, so-called natural growth.
