France Wants Turkey To Resume Syria-Israel Talks & Israel-PA Accord.

France Wants Turkey To Resume Syria-Israel Talks & Israel-PA Accord. French PM Francois Fillon last week visited Damascus and urgedTurkey to resume its mediation between Israel and Syria. He also urgedthe Palestinian Authority to resume talks with Israel. Foreign MinisterBernard Kouchner told the weekly le Journal du Dimanche of Feb. 21 hewas "tempted" by the idea of international recognition of aPalestinian state even before its borders were negotiated.Kouchner's proposal showed France's willingness "toaccelerate the [peace] process, to take initiatives to kick offnegotiations which are taking too long to start". French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Fillon on Feb. 22 met PAPresident Mahmoud Abbas in Paris. Peace talks were halted overIsrael's 22-day war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip which ended onJan. 18, 2009, due largely to a PA demand that Israel first impose acomplete freeze on building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem andIsrael's refusal to do so. In Brussels, Abbas on Feb. 23 warned the region could plunge into a"religious war" over Israeli plans to make the Cave ofPatriarchs in Hebron one of its national heritage sites. Jews revere itas the traditional burial place of the Bible's Abraham, Isaac andJacob. Muslims see Abraham as their forefather, and control of theshrine is a flash-point between Palestinians and Israelis. Palestiniansin Hebron on Feb. 22 rioted to protest the Israeli decision, and tensionthere continued on during the week. After Abbas spoke, Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefetz denounced thecriticism. He said: "This is a hypocritical campaign of lies",insisting that Israel was "dedicated to the freedom of worship ofthe members of all religions at all the holy sites".