Israel Says France 'Yes' on Palestinian U.N. Bid is 'No Surprise'

The Israeli foreign ministry said on Tuesday that a French decision to back a Palestinian bid for enhanced United Nations status at the General Assembly "comes as no surprise."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament that Paris would say "yes" in Thursday's vote on a call for "non-member observer state" status for the Palestinians, recalling France's "consistent position" on the issue.

A spokesman for Israel's foreign ministry, which firmly opposes the Palestinian bid, said the French position "comes as no surprise."

"We knew that France was inclined to vote for this resolution, so we expected as much," spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP in an email.

Palmor added that the Palestinian move "is in fundamental breach with existing agreements," which reverses the order of "first negotiate, then reach an agreement, then get U.N. recognition" and said the bid was "detrimental to peace."

"The chances of resuming peace talks after this vote will be even dimmer, as the Palestinians will certainly not want to negotiate anything that is included in the text, and as they have already jumped to the last phase without going through the necessary preliminaries," Palmor said.