France have warned Israel that unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, it will officially recognise Palestine as its own independent sovereign state. “France will engage in the coming weeks in the preparation of an international conference bringing together the parties and their main partners, American, European, Arab, notably to preserve and make happen the two-state solution,” French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius announced. France24.com reports: A French diplomatic source added that Paris intended to launch this conference by the summer. Shortly after the announcement, the Palestinian Authority’s Negotiations Affairs Departmentwelcomed the initiative in a Twitter post and stated that they would be contacting France shortly. Israeli newspaper Haaretz late Friday quoted a senior Israeli official rejecting Fabius’ warning that France would recognise a Palestinian state if the peace efforts failed. Promise to recognise Palestinian state In response to Fabius’ announcement, a senior US administration official said: “We are not going to speculate about the proposed Conference … The US position on this issue has been clear. We continue to believe that the preferred path to resolve this conflict is for the parties to reach an agreement on final status issues directly.” The Middle East peace process has stalled because of [...]