EU sounds alarm over US embassy decision

BRUSSELS — The sole way for achieving peace and security for Israel and Palestine is the two state solution, EU High Representative/Vice President Federica Mogherini said Tuesday.

“We in Europe believe that the only perspective for peace and security for Israel and Palestine is the two state solution and this is not out of idealism but this is out of experience,” Mogherini said during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg following the first day of the NATO foreign ministers meeting.

The EU official highlighted the 2002 Arab Peace initiative, which offers Israel normal ties with the Arabs in return for withdrawal from territories it occupied in 1967, as a “ useful framework for finding a solution to the conflict”.

“We believe that any move that could derail the possibility of re-launching talks for instance moves around Jerusalem will be detrimental in immediate terms and in the perspective of opening diplomatic process in the Middle East,” she said.

In remarks to the press on the sidelines of the meetings, Germany’s acting foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, said any unilateral US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would inflame Middle East tensions.

The German official added that such a measure would a “very dangerous development”.

Early Tuesday, Mogherini met with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, telling him that “any action that would undermine” peace efforts to create two separate states for the Israelis and the Palestinians “must absolutely be avoided”, according to Reuters.

“A way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of both states,” Mogherini said, according to the news agency, stressing the EU’s support for unlocking meaningful peace talks.

She said the EU’s 28 foreign ministers will jointly discuss the matter with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Brussels next Monday, to be followed by a similar meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas early next year.