GAZA CITY, 27 October 2006 — The European Union was ready to offer help as EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana expressed concern yesterday at the absence of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We have the feeling that it is now stalled,” Solana said after a working breakfast in Tel Aviv with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
Europe would like to see “some movement...to give not only hope to the people, but (to) realities on the ground,” he said.
“We the Europeans are more committed than ever” to the stalled peace drive, he added.
Solana, who was due later to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, noted in particular the dire situation in the Gaza Strip and the closure of the Rafah border crossing to Egypt.
The crossing, the Palestinians’ only gateway to the outside world that bypasses Israel, has opened only occasionally since an Israeli soldier was seized by Gaza-based fighters at the end of June.
While thanking the EU for its contributions, particularly in monitoring the crossing, Livni suggested that Israel may seek changes in the way the crossing is operated when its mandate comes up for renewal next month.
“We are going to negotiate with the Europeans about the future terms,” she told reporters.
Solana’s six-day Middle East trip, also to take in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, is part of an EU drive to use its newfound influence, beyond just being a substantial provider of humanitarian aid.
But it takes place at a difficult political time in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is struggling to build a stable coalition, and the Palestinian Hamas-led administration and Fatah seem nowhere near achieving an internationally acceptable government.
Palestinians are unsure whether they can ever trust the Israeli government, which is poised to include an ultra-nationalist party.
Meanwhile, the Jewish state outright refuses to recognize the Hamas-led Palestinian Cabinet. And Livni implicitly expressed doubts about Abbas, widely accepted by the EU, the United States and others as the main Palestinian interlocutor since Hamas came to power in January.
“We hope that Abu Mazen (Abbas) will be strong enough as a president to change things on the ground,” she said. She also cast doubt on further dismantling of settlements, saying that last year’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza after a 38-year occupation showed that Israel was “willing to dismantle settlements when needed.” With the EU backing Abbas, Hamas has steadfastly refused pressure to organize a government that will meet conditions set forth in the largely defunct Middle East road map to peace.
“Our objective is to see if the first steps toward movement have been made, to start the beginning of movement” toward a national unity coalition, an EU diplomat explained ahead of Solana’s meeting with Abbas.
Amid the doubt on both sides, the EU’s top diplomat, who also held talks with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, reiterated that the best way forward was the so-called Middle East road map.
“What we have to do is to push it, to implement it. We have to transit the road and go to the end of the road,” Solana said.
The United States, European Union, Russia and United Nations back the road map, which calls on the Palestinians to renounce violence, recognize Israel and agree to abide by past peace agreements for the aid to resume.
In exchange, the road map calls for a Palestinian state to exist in peace and security alongside Israel, which must in turn end illegal settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
The EU has donated some 600 million euros to the Palestinians this year, more than in an average year, although the money has been sent in ways that keep it out of the hands of Hamas.
Meanwhile, three Palestinians were killed yesterday by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip, witnesses and medical sources said.
In an incursion to eastern Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed two Palestinians including a member of the Palestinian National Security. Witnesses said that a bout 20 tanks backed by combat helicopters invaded at dawn under cover of heavy machine-gun fire causing fear and terror among the residents.
Medical sources identified the National Security member as Rami Abu Lahia, 27, adding that he arrived at Nasser Hospital with serious injuries after being shot in his abdomen. He died later in the hospital.
Later a second Palestinian was killed, also in Khuza village, when Israeli helicopters opened heavy indiscriminate fire toward houses in the village, witnesses said.
Medical sources identified the killed youth as Ahmad Al-Briem, 18.
— With input from agencies
