Secretary Kerry will attend France's Israel-Palestine Peace Conference June 3

posted on: May 20, 2016

An international conference due in Paris to help relaunch peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis will go ahead on June 3, allowing the United States to attend, France’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

“The date that I can announce today that allows everyone to participate is June 3,” Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels after meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Ayrault had proposed May 30 for the talks, but Kerry was not available on that date.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday he will attend the conference in Paris on June 3 to discuss possible Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts but said it was up to both sides to decide whether they were ready to negotiate.

“The parties themselves have to make the decision to negotiate and in that clearly there will have to be some compromise, without compromise it is not possible,” Kerry told a news conference during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

“I will work with the French, I will work with the Egyptians, I will work with the Arab community in good faith in an effort to see if we can find a way to help the parties see their way to come back,” he added.

Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Robin Emmott

source: reuters.com