MIDDLE EAST: EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in bid to re-establish bilateral negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians

Record ID: 858631

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in bid to re-establish bilateral negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians
  • Date: 5th June 2006
  • Summary: (W3) JERUSALEM (JUNE 5, 2006) (REUTERS) SOLANA WALKING INTO ROOM AHEAD OF A MEETING WITH ISRAELI DEFENCE MINISTER AMIR PERETZ PERETZ WALKING INTO ROOM, SHAKING HANDS WITH SOLANA
  • Embargoed: 20th June 2006 13:00
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  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADLYCO91MVGDOOT7QCN67MIK9R
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  • Story Text: The European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana met with various Israeli leaders as well as the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday (June 5) in a bid to re-establish bilateral negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians.
    Solana began his day of meetings in Jerusalem, where he met the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He then travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah where he met Abbas. They held a joint news conference after meeting to discuss the various difficulties facing the Palestinian Authority.
    The ruling Hamas faction and moderate Abbas are set for a political showdown over a manifesto penned by Palestinians in Israeli jails that implicitly recognises the Jewish state.
    With a Tuesday (June 6) deadline looming for Hamas to accept the prisoners' document, Abbas repeated a pledge to hold a referendum on the manifesto in July unless the group changed its mind.
    "We are still talking. We still have the whole day ahead and we hope the parties will adopt the prisoners' document. We hope they will accept it and in this case, we would not need a referendum," Abbas said in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Abbas' surprising ultimatum came after the Palestinian Authority was unable to pay salaries to its employees for at least three months, after Israel, the U.S and other countries cut off financial aid to the Hamas-led government.
    On Monday morning, banks across the Palestinian territories began paying 'loans' to some of the government employes who earn NIS 1,500 or less per month.
    "We will continue to put as much (money) as we can. As I said the amount of money which is going to be spent on the Palestinian people in the year of 2006 will be more than the one that was spent in 2005. And thirdly I agree very much with what the president said, it is very important, it is necessary that Israel and the leader of the Palestinian, the Palestinian president, do get together," Solana said.
    Solana also met Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, Vice Premier Shimon Peres and Israeli foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
    Commenting on the manifesto, Peretz said Israel was not interested in interfering with Palestinian internal affairs.
    "I think that the Palestinian dialogue regarding the 'prisoners document' is a an internal Palestinian matter and we have no intention to interfere with that," Peretz told reporters.
    The document includes a clause calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Hamas seeks to destroy the Jewish state and has rejected calls by Abbas and Western powers to soften its stance.
    Hamas trounced the long-dominant Fatah in January elections, but since taking power in March the Islamic militant group has seen its popularity sapped by the effects of a Western aid blockade on Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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