MIDDLE EAST: Italian FM Frattini explains EU decision on Jerusalem after meeting Palestinian PM

Record ID: 590826

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Italian FM Frattini explains EU decision on Jerusalem after meeting Palestinian PM
  • Date: 10th December 2009
  • Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (DECEMBER 9, 2009) (REUTERS) FRATTINI AND FAYYAD APPROACHING PODIUMS AHEAD OF JOINT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANCO FRATTINI SAYING: "Europe always said practically the same. It was important to make all this point explicit rather than implicit. We stress importance of coming back to negotiations. We stress importance of coming through reconciliation between all the Palestinian factions." CAMERAMAN (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) PALESTINIAN PRIME MINISTER SALAM FAYYAD SAYING: "We welcome the European decision that stressed the importance of the Palestinian interior situation, the reconciliation between the parts of the nation and the institutions of the Palestinian people. This is also mentioned in the (EU) decision." REPORTER WRITING NOTES (SOUNDBITE) (English) ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANCO FRATTINI SAYING: "The European position will help Prime Minister Netanyahu to resist to pressure coming from settlers, demonstrating and protesting in the streets now of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against moratorium and any kind of freezing. I hope, I hope that our position will be helpful for Prime Minister of Israel to say 'well, I'm obliged because I took a commitment not only towards Israeli people but towards the international community'." FRATTINI AND FAYYAD LEAVING
  • Embargoed: 25th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA9M6X2R8LYXSY2CWPMVYSF6TG
  • Story Text: Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday (December 9) explained the importance of a European Union call to share Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians, after meeting Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
    In a statement issued on Tuesday (December 8) from Brussels, the EU urged Israel to share Jerusalem with the Palestinians as part of a Middle East peace agreement and make the holy city the capital of two states.
    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on a visit to Egypt on Wednesday, described the EU statement as important, but added that it had watered down an earlier Swedish draft, which had defined a state of Palestine as comprising "the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza".
    Italy's foreign minister, speaking in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said the EU position was consistent.
    "Europe always said practically the same. It was important to make all this point explicit rather than implicit. We stress the importance of coming back to negotiations. We stress the importance of coming through reconciliation between all the Palestinian factions," Frattini told reporters after a private meeting with Fayyad.
    The latter part of that statement, at least, was welcomed by Fayyad.
    "We welcome the European decision that stressed the importance of the Palestinian interior situation, the reconciliation between the parts of the nation and the institutions of the Palestinian people. This is also mentioned in the (EU) decision."
    The call, part of a 12-paragraph statement by EU foreign ministers on the Middle East, reaffirmed a position which the current Israeli government rejects, insisting that genuine peace needs resolution of the status of Jerusalem through negotiation.
    Rejecting Israel's annexation of the eastern half of the city, their statement said the EU would "not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties".
    Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed East Jerusalem and nearby suburbs, in a step never recognised internationally.
    Frattini also referred to a recent decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to temporarily halt construction in West Bank settlements.
    "The European position will help Prime Minister Netanyahu to resist to pressure coming from settlers, demonstrating and protesting in the streets now of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against moratorium and any kind of freezing. I hope, I hope that our position will be helpful for Prime Minister of Israel to say 'well, I'm obliged because I took a commitment not only towards Israeli people but towards the international community," Frattini said.
    Under pressure from the United States, Netanyahu announced a 10-month freeze on new housing projects last month in an attempt to persuade Palestinians to return to U.S.-sponsored peace talks suspended a year ago. The move had sparked settlers' demonstrations and protests.
    Netanyahu has urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yet again to resume negotiations suspended since last December saying that the Palestinians need peace no less than Israel does.
    Abbas has demanded a settlement freeze before talks resume and has rejected Netanyahu's construction hiatus as insufficient.
    The moratorium does not apply to some 3,000 settler housing units already under construction, nor to 500 other housing units recently approved, Netanyahu said. It also doesn't apply to areas Israel annexed to its Jerusalem municipality after a 1967 war.
    Later on Wednesday, Frattini met in Jerusalem with Netanyahu, who came to office in March declaring that Jerusalem would remain the "undivided capital" of the Jewish state and has repeatedly ruled out including the future of the city in peace talks.
    His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, had said Israel would have to give up parts of the city under a comprehensive peace deal.
    The United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations all regard the status of Jerusalem as one of the core issues to be settled when and if peace negotiations resume between Israel and the Palestinians on a so-called "two-state solution".
    Frattini, who just attended a two-day European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, is scheduled to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman later on Wednesday.
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