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French president to address Israel's Knesset

Iran Press TV

Mon Nov 11, 2013 8:16AM GMT

The French President is due to address at Israel's parliament next week, shortly after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius played Israel's advocate during nuclear talks between Iran and six major world powers in Geneva.

François Hollande is slated to deliver a speech at Israel's parliament (Knesset) next Monday, the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post reported on Monday.

"This is a great honor for the Knesset to host the president of France, a country that is one of Israel's greatest allies. I am happy and proud that President Hollande decided to respect the Knesset and its members and speak to the Israeli people on the stage of the stronghold of Israeli democracy," Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said.

This is while last week Edelstein said that the French president was not welcome in the parliament as Hollande had decided to speak to students instead of Israeli lawmakers.

However, it seems that Hollande has changed his plans and intends to attend the Knesset alongside the French delegation including ministers, lawmakers and journalists.

The recent developments come shortly after Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - Britain, France, China, Russia and the US - plus Germany concluded their talks in the Swiss city of Geneva over Tehran's nuclear energy program.

"It is necessary to take fully into account Israel's security concerns and those of the region," Laurent Fabius told France Inter radio in Geneva on Saturday at the beginning of the third day of the talks.

Fabius said there were several points in the draft nuclear deal that Paris was "not satisfied with."

This is while Israel has increased its campaign to undermine talks between Iran and the six major world powers and prevent any possible nuclear deal.

At an assembly of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency in al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on the United States and the European Union not to let up sanctions against Tehran.

"This is the deal that is proposed now. Iran does not roll back its nuclear making capacities at all, but the P5+1 are rolling back sanctions. That's a bad deal. It's a dangerous deal," he said.

Meanwhile, Israeli's Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said he planned to visit the United States before the resumption of talks on November 20 to "lobby dozens of members of the US Congress" against a possible agreement.

MYA/NN/HRB