France appears to be taking the lead in pressing for an international conference on Middle East issues, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It plans to seek American and Soviet support for such an initiative.
While not linking them directly, the French believe the confrontation with Iraq and Israeli-Palestinian problems must be addressed. If not, they risk becoming irreversibly linked, President Francois Mitterrand warned Monday at a news conference here.
He referred to the rioting earlier that day in Jerusalem’s Old City, in which at least 19 Palestinians were killed by Israeli police and more than 100 people injured, including Jewish worshipers at the Western Wall who were baraged by rocks.
This “only confirms that it is necessary to find a solution where dialogue prevails over violence,” Mitterrand said.
He said he did “not intend to mix” the Palestinian and Iraqi questions, but indicated nevertheless that if U.N. resolutions are to be binding upon one party, they must be binding on the other.
“One cannot try to defend human rights here and neglect them there,” he said. “Rights are rights. The U.N. Security Council and the United Nations find themselves facing problems that now risk becoming linked.”
The Italian prime minister, Giulio Andreotti, who was also present at the news conference, likewise rejected linking the violence in Jerusalem with the Persian Gulf crisis. He said tying the two together would create “a veritable disaster that could overturn all efforts to achieve a peaceful solution.”
French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas, like Mitterrand, addressed the need to confront the issue of human rights wherever it occurs.
After meeting Tuesday with the foreign ministers of France’s 11 European Community partners, Dumas said, “There can be no different kinds of justice. What we want to impose on Iraq, respect for U.N. resolutions, has to be imposed on all other states as well,” he said.
Dumas, who will go to New York and Washington next week, made clear he was referring to Israel’s need to abide by Security Council resolutions. “That should be done while taking into account Israel’s own security,” he added.
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