JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday sharply rebuffed what he described as an international attempt to dictate the terms of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal ahead of talks with France’s foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, who was visiting the region to advance a French-led initiative.
With peace talks stalled for more than a year, France has been sounding out the possibility of relaunching the process with the help of Arab states, the European Union and United Nations Security Council members, supported by a Security Council resolution that would set parameters for new negotiations on Palestinian statehood and perhaps establish a time frame for them.
Mr. Fabius met on Saturday in Cairo with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt and with a committee of Arab foreign ministers. Mr. Fabius warned Israel and the Palestinians that the stalemate in the peace process risked setting the conflict “ablaze,” adding, “We have to do the maximum so that the two sides restart negotiations,” Reuters reported.
At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday morning Mr. Netanyahu said: “The way to reach agreements is only through bilateral negotiations, and we strongly reject attempts to force international diktat on us in regard to both security and peace.” While he did not refer directly to the French proposal, his remarks were clearly timed to relate to it.
These international efforts, Mr. Netanyahu added, failed to address “the security needs of the state of Israel and our other national interests.”
Mr. Fabius met the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah before his meeting with Mr. Netanyahu.
Underlining the deep rift between the Israeli and Palestinian sides, Riad al-Malki, the foreign minister of the Palestinian Authority government, said shortly before the meeting in Ramallah that it was “late for the international community” to be taking up its responsibilities 48 years after the Israeli occupation of territories it captured in the 1967 war, and which the Palestinians claim for their state.
Mr. Malki told the official Voice of Palestine radio station that the French proposal was still at the stage of “ideas” and that there may not be any real European movement until September.
In a reminder of the simmering tensions in the area, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank stabbed an Israeli paramilitary police officer in the neck and chest, severely wounding him, at a busy gateway to the Old City in East Jerusalem on Sunday. The wounded officer shot the assailant, who was said to be about 18 years old. Both were transferred to hospital in critical condition, according to the police.
The episode came two days after an Israeli man was killed and another injured by a Palestinian gunman in the occupied West Bank, adding to fears of an uptick in violence during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began Thursday.
In an effort to reduce some of the pressure on the Palestinians, Israel said it was relaxing some restrictions on Palestinian movement during Ramadan, providing shuttle buses from West Bank cities to bring Muslim worshipers to Friday prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and assisting in family visits between Palestinians in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel.
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