RAMALLAH, February 21, 2018 (WAFA) – Many international parties, including France, supported the ideas put forth by President Mahmoud Abbas in his address at the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday, said the permanent representative of Palestine to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, on Wednesday.

Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, Mansour said that Paris welcomed these proposals regarding the convening of an international peace conference and the creation of a new mechanism for the peace process and expressed readiness to consider them.

Mansour said the international Quartet on Middle East peace will conduct deliberations on expanding it and prepare for a high-level meeting to play a major role in the peace process, pointing out many other options, such as France or Russia convening an international peace conference.

The Quarter is currently composed of the UN, the European Union, Russia and the United States, with the US influencing all its decisions.

He called on the Security Council to take the president‘s initiative seriously and discuss it and start actual steps on the ground for implementation, pointing out that the Palestinian leadership wants a peace process that ends the occupation within a fixed timeframe, in addition to accepting Palestine as a full member of the UN.

He said that the UN Secretary-General submitted to the Security Council a 43-page paper for discussion on the question of international protection for the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.

M.K.