Paris: Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said that the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has helped fuel unrest in Egypt and elsewhere in the Mideast.
During a visit to Paris, Fayyad said protesters' complaints stem not only from internal problems in their own societies, but also from "a frustration, a desperation because of the failure of efforts to solve the Palestinian problem."
Fayyad spoke during a news conference with French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Later today, Fayyad is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and to attend dinner talks on a follow up conference to a 2007 donor event in Paris that raised USD 7.7 billion in Palestinian aid pledges.
Fillon said France would be willing to host a new conference in June on the condition it includes a "political dimension, beyond financial and economic aid,"_ a major step on the road to the creation of a Palestinian state in 2011, he added.
Fayyad's visit, which ends tomorrow, came amid continuing clashes in central Cairo between anti-government protesters and backers of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak has been a major player in the Mideast peace
process. He is considered Israel's bridge to the Arab world, and has also been a mediator in talks with the Palestinians. Some observers fear the flux in Egypt could damage efforts to create a Palestinian state. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has only recently accepted the idea of an independent Palestinian state next to Israel.
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