French President Francois Hollande has urged Europe to play a bigger role to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said it could no longer just play the role of a "bank window" for reconstruction after each war.
In an annual address to a gathering of French ambassadors outlining the country's foreign policy objectives, he declared : "For a solution to finally be reached, the United States' role will be decisive. plomats outlining foreign policy objectives. But Europe's role is as important. It must act more. Europe does a lot to rebuild and develop Palestine, but it can't simply just be a bank window where we turn to heal the wounds after a recurring conflict."
An open-ended ceasefire in the Gaza conflict began on Tuesday.
He said France had proposed international supervision of the destruction of the tunnels, securing the re-opening of gateways from Gaza to Israel and Egypt, and providing the Palestinian Authority “the means to respond to the humanitarian crisis and to begin reconstruction.”
Hollande said once the ceasefire was consolidated the path to peace would have to be taken as quickly as possible.
"Everyone knows the conditions: a democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side with an Israeli state living in security."
The French President also declared that opposition forces fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq should get more Western support but ruled out seeing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as an ally."A large alliance is needed, but let's be clear. Assad is not a partner in the struggle against terrorism."
Syrian rebel forces have been fighting Assad for more than three years with political backing from the West in a war that has cost 190,000 lives. France was the first Western country to recognize Syria's opposition forces, but was left out on a limb last year when the United States called off planned air strikes against Assad just hours before French planes were due to take off.