EU presidency urges support for Arab Mideast peace initiative

EU foreign ministers were to meet Arab League counterparts in Brussels amid a fresh attempt to push forward the Middle East peace moves, with separate Palestinian and Israeli states as the goal.

"It is important that the talks process ... can be kept stable so that such a peace initiative has the chance to prevail," said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.

"The Palestinian side need to be sure that the negotiations are moving towards an independent state, living in peace side by side with Israel. The Israeli side need a political horizon which includes security and no violence," he told reporters before chairing talks with his EU counterparts.

He added that while the EU had invited the Arab ministers this time round, they would invite Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to their next meeting on June 18.

"It shows we are working to ensure balance, we are committed to the two states solution," he said, adding that "the Arab League will have the opportunity to outline the Arab peace initiative to us, an initiative that you know we have welcomed."

The initiative, first presented by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and revived at an Arab League summit in Riyadh in March, would offer the normalisation of ties with Israel in return for full withdrawal from Arab lands seized in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.

Deputy Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said on Saturday that Israel is ready for serious discussions with Arab nations over a revived peace proposal, as shuttle diplomacy in the region continued apace.

EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner voiced optimism and said the opportunity presented by the progress made by the new Palestinian government of national unity should not be missed.

"I am encouraged. I see that they are trying to progress that they are making practical steps," she told reporters as she entered the EU foreign ministers talks.

"I think we have to honour this movement. We have to see that something is there in order to avoid a civil war," she added.

The EU has not resume direct aid to the Palestinian government, which includes members of the hardline Islamist Hamas movement boycotted by the Union and the United States.

However the bloc is supporting the Palestinian people through a temporary funding mechanism in conjunction with NGOs and has opened contacts with the non-Hamas members of the unity government.

Ferrero-Waldner said pressure should be put on Israel to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in withheld tax and customs duties to the Palestinian territories.

Arab League chief Amr Mussa was to meet the EU ministers along with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon as well as the Palestinian territories.

Officials from Egypt and Qatar were also expected.

Source

About headlines and content that gets changed after it was added to this site - see disclaimer here

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.