Saariselka: The European Union on Saturday
urged Israel to urgently resume peace talks with the
Palestinians, warning that reconciliation efforts could fail
definitively if the current impasse continues.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leaving
for a tour of the Middle East from tomorrow, said she was
"very concerned" about this week's announcement of plans to
build new settler homes in east Jerusalem.
"I'm very concerned, I'm concerned that Israeli announced
this just as the proximity talks were beginning" between
Israelis and the Palestinians, she told journalists on the
side lines of a meeting with several European foreign
ministers in Saariselka, in northern Finland.
Ashton called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu "to demonstrate leadership."
"We need a negotiated peace settlement, it needs to
happen quickly and now," she said.
Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU,
shared her concern.
"Until now, it's not too late, but if we wait for more
than two years it will be too late," Spain's Foreign Minister
Miguel Angel Moratinos said, warning that there would be no
more land left to negotiate and that it would be extremely
difficult to fix borders between Israel and a Palestinian
state.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, March 13, 2010, 23:43