WEST BANK: European Union backs continuation of direct talks for the time being

Record ID: 560395

  • Title: WEST BANK: European Union backs continuation of direct talks for the time being
  • Date: 12th October 2010
  • Summary: JERICHO, WEST BANK (OCTOBER 11, 2010) (REUTERS) JERICHO PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD ARRIVING FOR CEREMONY FAYYAD GREETING DIGNITARIES MEDIA VARIOUS OF FRANCE'S FOREIGN MINISTER BERNARD KOUCHNER AND PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD CUTTING RIBBON AT CEREMONY MAN TAKING PHOTOGRAPH FAYYAD AND KOUCHNER UNVEILING PLAQUE PLAQUE PEOPLE IN STREET FAYYAD, KOUCHNER AND SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER MIGUEL MORATINOS LOOKING AT PLAQUE MORATINOS STANDING SOUNDBITE (English) FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER BENARD KOUCHNER, SAYING: "No, for the time being we are supporting negotiations, talk to each other. How to talk to each other, this is a very difficult time, but in a way this is a turning point." PEOPLE IN STREET WITH FRENCH FLAG IN FOREGROUND SOUNDBITE (English) FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER BENARD KOUCHNER, SAYING: "I am not supportive if it undermined this actual process, you know perfectly that Miguel Moratinos and I, years ago we were in favour for a long time, is it possible? I don't know, for the time being we concentrate our efforts, all the efforts of the international community, close to the Americans not against the Americans, with the Israeli friends, with the Palestinian friends." SIGN READING IN ARABIC: 'TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF CIVILISATION' (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD, SAYING: "We discussed the important issues especially what is going on now and how we should treat the new situation especially when Israel sticks by it's position which is illegal according to the international law; sure the issue of stop building settlements." PLAQUE
  • Embargoed: 27th October 2010 13:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA2O4Y0PB2DK2OVN6S250VTLF8E
  • Story Text: EU foreign ministers on Monday (October 11) arrived in the West Bank town of Jericho where they met Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and voiced their continued support of the US-backed direct peace talks.
    French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos met Fayyad in Jericho to inaugurate a European-funded project in the town, which is celebrating ten thousand years of human inhabitation.
    "No, for the time being we are supporting negotiations, talk to each other. How to talk to each other, this is a very difficult time, but in a way this is a turning point," said Kouchner after the inauguration ceremony.
    When asked about the possibility of the United Nations Security Council creating a Palestinian state, with or without a peace deal with Israel, Kouchner was cautious, saying the European Union was fully behind the US-backed direct talks.
    "I am not supportive if it undermined this actual process, you know perfectly that Miguel Moratinos and I, years ago we were in favour for a long time, is it possible? I don't know, for the time being we concentrate our efforts, all the efforts of the international community, close to the Americans not against the Americans, with the Israeli friends, with the Palestinian friends," Kouchner added.
    Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad told the media that all the major issues had been discussed during the three way meeting with Kouchner and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Moratinos.
    "We discussed the important issues specially what is going on now and how we should treat the new situation specially when Israel sticks by it's position which is illegal according to the international law; sure the issue of stop building settlements," Fayyad said.
    On Sunday, both diplomats met with Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
    The Palestinians, backed by Arab powers, said on Saturday they were giving the United States a month in which to persuade Israel to halt West Bank settlement building or risk the collapse of peace talks.
    The warning issued at an Arab League meeting in Libya was also a reprieve for Washington as it tries to salvage 5-week-old talks stalled over Israel's refusal to extend a settlement freeze on occupied land where Palestinians seek statehood.
    Diplomats said Abbas and Arab foreign ministers had in closed session mooted "alternatives" to his face-to-face negotiations with Netanyahu.
    Abbas's proposals included seeking U.S. and U.N. pledges of recognition for a future Palestine taking in all of the West Bank, and a threat by the president to step down over the impasse, diplomats said.
    Netanyahu has resisted international calls to renew the settlement moratorium, which expired last month. Israel argues that the Palestinians should have entered negotiations earlier in the 10-month freeze and that the dispute would be irrelevant once peacemaking ripened to the point of demarcating borders.
    Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip -- lands Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war. Israel quit Gaza in 2005 but insists on keeping all of Jerusalem -- its declared capital -- and swathes of West Bank settlements under any peace deal.
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