BICOM

The UK government declined to send a high-level delegation to yesterday’s Paris peace conference, expressing “reservations” over the usefulness of the event.

While 36 foreign ministers attended the conference, including outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry, the UK government sent a delegation of observers consisting of Michael Howells, head of the Middle East desk at the Foreign Office, and two advisers to the UK ambassador to France, Edward Llewellyn.

Israel had urged allies to send relatively low-level delegations to Paris, arguing that such a multi-lateral conference would further encourage the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reject direct talks with Israel.

The UK delegation did not sign the conference’s concluding statement. The Foreign Office issued a statement expressing “reservations about an international conference intended to advance peace between the parties that does not involve them – indeed, which is taking place against the wishes of the Israelis – and which is taking place just days before the transition to a new American president when the US will be the ultimate guarantor of any agreement”.

The statement concluded: “There are risks therefore that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for peace.”

Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May took the unusual step of criticising a speech by US Secretary of State John Kerry, which took aim at Israel’s government and its policies.

She said at the time: “We do not believe that the way to negotiate peace is by focusing on only one issue, in this case the construction of settlements.”

Kerry’s speech came in the wake of a UN Security Council resolution considered hostile by Israelis. Last week, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that the UK had helped draft the resolution, which criticised Israeli settlements. However, he clarified that “we only supported it because it contained new language pointing out the infamy of terrorism that Israelis suffers every day”.