INTERVIEW-EU urges discussion of final status issues
Source: Reuters
By Suleiman al-Khalidi AMMAN, March 1 (Reuters) - The European Union believes final status issues such as Jewish settlements on occupied territory need to be addressed soon to encourage Palestinian support for Arab-Israeli peace talks. "For the Palestinians it is highly important to also speak about the political horizon.... that means final status issues in order to really see that things can be going for the future," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. Egypt, Jordan and some major European governments are pushing for a quick jump forward to negotiations on details of a future Palestinian state, including its borders. They have been encouraging Washington to agree to the shift in emphasis to put final status issues such as the fate of Jerusalem and refugees at the top of any renewed peace drive. "We always have also been demanding of Israel that it does not prejudge any actions that then are necessary to renegotiate final status issues -- and these are always the same questions about settlements, about the line of the wall..," she said. "It is very important that the Palestinian population on the one hand sees that things of their daily life can be improved but at the same time there is also now an outline of a political horizon." Ferrero-Waldner was on the fourth leg of a Middle East tour that has taken her to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The Quartet of Middle East mediators will meet soon in Egypt to discuss stepping up diplomatic efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace moves, Ferrero-Waldner said. ARAB QUARTET The meeting would be followed by talks with the so-called Arab Quartet that comprises Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, the senior EU official said. Diplomats say the Arab Quartet has been pushing Washington and the Europeans to get Israel engaged on an Arab initiative launched in 2002 which would trade diplomatic recognition for Israel's withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 war. Ferrero-Waldner repeated after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday that any future unity Palestinian government must respond to international demands before direct aid was resumed. "I have not yet any detail or sense where this government will exactly be going. Therefore I think it is really right at this very moment to say let us judge this national unity government on its programme, on its actions. "This government has to respond to the three principles that the Quartet has set up," Ferrero-Waldner said referring to demands that the new government would recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals.
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