France’s new Ambassador to Israel, Frederic Journes, spoke with i24NEWS on Tuesday after he presented his credentials to President Isaac Herzog.
“We always want to promote, push, and highlight what is incredible in relations between France and Israel. France is a bit like other countries, that is to say, that it is gradually changing the way it looks at this region and, I hope, also at Israel," Journes said in the interview.
"France has looked at Israel and the region from the perspective of its problems for too long, but we are witnessing an incredible economic transformation in the Gulf countries,” he continued.
Journes commented on the Abraham Accords, which saw Israel normalizing ties with several Arab countries.
“It is a region that brings solutions and opportunities to the world. We didn't see the dynamics of the Abraham Accords coming because we were looking a lot at what Jared Kushner was doing around the idea of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said, emphasizing that France's view of the region was evolving and that an even stronger dynamic was emerging in France-Israel relations.
Concerning the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, Journes stated that France had always supported the two-state solution.
“We want the Palestinians and Israelis to find peace between them and to benefit from it. For this, we need political dialogue like there was with the Abraham Accords," said the Ambassador, adding, “We want a solution that brings peace and ensures Israel’s security.”
Journes commented on the Iranian nuclear program, and said he advocates a return of the Islamic Republic to the 2015 deal.
"This agreement was criticized, but it allowed control over what Tehran was doing. Without it, we lost this visibility. We must return to this agreement to put the nuclear program back under control because we do not want an Iran with a nuclear weapon,” said Journes, who in the past served as governor of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).