Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson told a Jewish delegation Thursday that he was “adamantly opposed” to holding an United Nations sponsored conference on Palestine in Paris but there was little he could do to prevent it. Cheysson, according to Jean Kahn who led a delegation of the Strasbourg Jewish community, said France was not consulted when the General Assembly decided last summer to hold the meeting at UNESCO in Paris. He said the French UN delegate abstained when the vote was held. The UN conference on Palestine will open August 16 and last 11 days. PLO chairman Yasir Arafat is expected to attend. Kahn said Cheysson agreed that the conference could spark a new wave of anti-Semitism and said the French government would do all it can to have the meeting cancelled or, at least, transferred to another city.
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