JERUSALEM — The Palestinian leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, billed it as a “moment of great expectation.’’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel dismissed it as “useless’’ and said it had been “rigged’’ by the Palestinians, under French auspices.
As representatives of 70 countries and international organizations convened in Paris Sunday for a conference reaffirming support for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the clearest indication of the distance between the main parties was their absence.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, said the conference was meant to reaffirm the commitment of the international community to the two-state solution, which he described as the only viable resolution of the long-running conflict.
The closing declaration also warned Israel and the Palestinians against taking one-sided actions that could hurt talks, such as Israeli settlement building. It also criticized incitement and ‘‘terror,’’ a reference to Palestinian attacks.
Israel had repudiated the French Initiative from its inception last year, saying international meddling encouraged the Palestinians to avoid entering direct negotiations with Israel without conditions.
The Palestinians have lost faith in such talks. Because Israel made it clear that it would boycott the Paris conference, neither side was invited.
With only days to go in office, Secretary of State John Kerry attended, as did dozens of other foreign ministers, making the get-together look like a kind of bookend to an era.
In remarks after the conference, Kerry restated the US administration’s support for a two-state solution and urged the incoming president to drop his threat to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
President-elect Donald Trump’s policies for the region remain unclear, and some of his appointments have raised questions about the incoming administration’s commitment to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
David M. Friedman, Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Israel, has been an avid supporter of Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, contrary to longstanding US policy.
After years of tensions with the Obama administration, Netanyahu appeared to be looking forward to the prospect of a White House enthusiastically supportive of Israel’s positions.
“I must say that this conference is among the last twitches of yesterday’s world,’’ the Israeli prime minister said before Sunday’s Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “Tomorrow’s world will be different — and it is very near.’’
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said last week that the conference would be “like a wedding with neither bride nor groom.’’
Abbas praised the French government and called upon the participants in the Paris conference to take “concrete measures in order to implement international law and UN resolutions.’’
In a statement Saturday, after a visit to the Vatican, where a Palestinian embassy was opened for the first time, he added, “It is long overdue for the Palestinian people to exercise their basic right to live in freedom and dignity.’’
The opening of the embassy was another symbolic victory for Abbas on the path to international recognition of Palestinian statehood.
Last month, the Obama administration allowed the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity as a flagrant violation of international law, defying extraordinary efforts by Trump and Israel to derail the vote.
Abbas is concerned about the future and is lobbying Trump to put aside a campaign pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.
“Any attempts at legitimizing the illegal Israeli annexation of the city will destroy the prospects of any political process,’’ Abbas said, “bury the hopes for a two-state solution, and fuel extremism in our region, as well as worldwide.’’
After years of stalemate in the peace process, few Israelis or Palestinians appeared to believe that the Paris conference would yield results.
The leader of the opposition in Israel’s Parliament, Isaac Herzog, of the center-left Zionist Union, wrote in a Twitter post that “Netanyahu should have been in Paris — not because of its diminishing impact, but to present Israel’s position, rather than run away.’’
A poll of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza last month indicated that only one quarter expected the French Initiative to result in any progress, while two-thirds said they thought the two-state solution was no longer viable because of settlement expansion.
Many members of Netanyahu’s coalition want to abandon the two-state solution and expand settlements, and some have even called for annexing parts of the West Bank.
Kerry, who has been increasingly critical of Netanyahu, defended the Paris effort.
He rejected Israeli criticism of the conference, saying the concept of a two-state solution to the conflict is ‘‘threatened’’ and must be reinforced if it is ever to happen.
He also warned that it’s too early to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem, as proposed by Trump. ‘‘This is not the right time,’’ he said. ‘‘We think it’s ill-advised.’’
Trump’s administration did not take part in the meeting and didn’t immediately comment on its final statement.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon of Israel called Sunday’s conference as ‘‘flat as a failed soufflé,’’ the Associated Press reported. ‘‘A big show is no replacement for direct negotiations between the parties,’’ he said.
President Francois Hollande of France agreed on the need for direct talks. ‘‘Only direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can lead to peace. No one will do it in their place,’’ Hollande said.
The chief Palestinian representative to France warned the Trump administration not to ‘‘underestimate’’ the message of peace sent by the conference, or the UN resolution last month condemning Israel’s construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Salman Elherfi told the AP, ‘‘The option of two states is not the dream of a single country, but it has become the concern of the whole world to protect it.’’
