PARIS
French Foreign minister Laurent Fabius has received on Tuesday his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.
During the closed-door discussions, the two foreign ministers assessed the situation in the West Bank, "which is deteriorating every day in the absence of a political perspective", said the French Foreign Ministry in a statement.
The meeting was also an opportunity for Fabius and Maliki to prepare for the first Franco-Palestinian intergovernmental seminar -- slated for September -- which will aim to "deepen" bilateral relations in the political, economic and cultural fields, said the statement.
It added that Fabius "has reiterated France' mobilization in favor of peace in the Middle East, notably France's proposal to create an international support group".
In December 2014, both French Assembly and Senate adopted resolutions calling on their government to recognize Palestine' statehood.
Peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators collapsed in mid-2014. Palestinian representatives insist that Israeli settlement building on Palestinian lands must stop before a comprehensive peace agreement can be reached.
Israeli settlement-building activity in Jerusalem and the West Bank has shot up since then.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.
Over half a million Jewish settlers currently live on Jewish-only settlements built since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
The Palestinians demand these areas, along with the Gaza Strip, for a future state of Palestine.
