France wants the EU to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Saturday.
In an interview with RFI, Barrot said he had again urged European countries this week to move forward on the issue.
"The settlements are illegal. It is not normal that the European Union can support this trade," he said.
Barrot compared the proposed measure with the EU's response to Russia's occupation of Crimea, noting that the bloc halted imports from the peninsula in 2014.
"This is the same thing that we must do with the illegal settlements," he said, while acknowledging that such a step requires agreement among EU countries.
Barrot also denounced what he called an "unprecedented explosion of violence" by Israeli occupiers in the occupied West Bank, saying it harms the dignity of Palestinians, Israel's security and prospects for a two-state solution.
On Niger, Barrot rejected accusations that France was involved in last week's mutiny as "pure fantasy," saying Paris had neither the intention nor the means to participate.
"All of this is, as usual, a way of wrongly pointing the finger at a responsibility of France that simply does not exist," he said.
The Aug. 29 mutiny saw soldiers attack a key military airbase and other strategic sites in Niamey before loyalist forces, supported by Russia's Africa Corps, regained control.
Niger's government on Friday accused France of instigating the unrest and supporting the mutineers.
