"Our gestures of firmness should not be accompanied by an impression of humiliation and systematic closed doors to an entire people, who would be then tempted to massively shift to an extremist position,” said Foreign minister Douste-Blazy
These words seem to mark a change in the extremely firm attitude initially expressed by the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself.
In addition, François Rochebloine, an MP for the UDF party (member of the ruling coalition), addressed the Minister for European Affairs, Catherine Colonna, during question time at the National Assembly. He questioned the Minister as to the intentions of the European Union, a fund provider for the Palestinian Authority, concerning the maintaining of these subsidies and the terms and conditions to be applied for their granting: official refusal of violence, recognition of the State of Israel’s right to exist and of the Oslo Agreements.
The Minister’s response was that these three conditions needed to be met in order to maintain dialogue and cooperation between the European Union and the Palestinian Authority. Up until now, she added, “the Palestinian Authority has always had at its head an elected President … whose position it was advisable to affirm … The Ministers of the European Union and the representatives of the Quartet have, at this juncture and while waiting for the formation of the next government, decided to maintain their financial aid to the Palestinian Authority. We shall however be intransigent: the continued granting of this aid will depend on the attitude and the effective commitments made by the next Palestinian government.”
English
Français