France convenes foreign ministers from major powers on Friday to put Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking back on the international agenda and find enough common ground to bring the two sides back to the table by the end of the year.

Palestine and Israel will not be represented at Friday's meeting, but the French hope this meeting could lead to eventual direct talks.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has insisted that direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians do not work.

"We don't want to act in the place of the Palestinians and the Israelis, but we want to help them," he told France Info radio.

France has grown frustrated over the absence of movement toward a two-state solution since the collapse of the last round of talks in April 2014, arguing that letting the status quo prevail is like "waiting for a powder keg to explode".

 

Source ; Petra