France prepared to host talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Friday that have received a cool response from Washington, but diplomats say merely shining the spotlight onto the stalemate is a victory. 


After decades of failed negotiations, few believe the climate is right to bring together Israelis and Palestinians for another shot at solving one of the world's longest-running conflicts. 


Indeed, neither party has been invited to Friday's talks. 


Direct negotiation "doesn't work," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault insisted ahead of the conference. 


"Currently everything is blocked. We don't want to act in the place of the Israelis and Palestinians but we want to help them," he told France Info radio. 


Instead representatives of some 25 countries, as well as the United Nations, European Union and Arab League, will try to lay the ground for a fully-fledged peace conference to be held by the end of the year. 


While scepticism over the new peace bid is high, the consensus among some diplomats appears to be that any effort is better than none at all. 


"The fear in France is that there is no credible perspective of solving this issue, diplomatically or politically," the diplomatic source in Paris told AFP. 


"We risk heading towards even more violence in an international context where there is no visible American effort on the case

Source: NNA