EU's Ashton wants to visit Gaza amid push for peace talks
9 March 2010
CORDOBA, Spain (AFP) - EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said Saturday she hopes to get into the Palestinian Gaza Strip during a Middle East trip this month, as Europe pushes for renewed peace talks.
European foreign ministers, meeting in Cordoba, Spain, welcomed the support of Arab nations for indirect "proximity" talks to begin between Israel and the Palestinians.
Washington has been struggling for months to coax the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table after talks were suspended in the wake of Israel's devastating war on Gaza launched in December 2008.
"We have to thank the Arab League which has done tremendous work. To accept the resumption (as soon as possible) of indirect talks between Israelis and the Palestinians is a signal," said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, arriving for a second day of EU talks in Spain.
Arab foreign ministers agreed on Wednesday to back one last round of indirect Palestinian-Israeli talks despite scepticism over Israel's readiness to revive peace efforts.
European ministers have been active recently in trying to revive the moribund peace process.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos recently spoke in favour of recognising a Palestinian state even before border issues are resolved.
Ashton said she plans to travel to Israel on March 17.
"I have asked to go to Gaza, we'll see what happens," she told reporters, saying she wanted, among other things, to see how the large amounts of EU aid into the Palestinian territories are being used.
Focus is needed on state-building "the enabling mechanisms that allow them to take the responsibilities," the British peer added.
Europe wants to ensure that its aid to the Palestinians is helping to put together the planks of an autonomous state, rather than merely funding the status quo.
Moratinos said it was not sufficient for Europe to take positions on the Middle East issue but must to become a real player in the region..
What is needed is "action to make it possible for the two-state solution to become a reality," he told reporters at a joint press conference with Ashton.
Israel seldom allows foreign dignitaries into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin managed to get in via Egypt last week, becoming the first European foreign minister to do so for over a year.
On Friday he slammed the "inhumane... siege" of the area.
"I am in no doubt that this is a very inhumane and unacceptable blockade and siege, very counter-productive to a peace process," Martin told reporters in Cordoba, talking of malnutrition and poor drinking water.
He went on to say that Hamas were benefiting from the siege as legitimate businesses were strangled.
Ashton said she hadn't had a chance to discuss Martin's visit with him and so "I don't know yet whether I agree with the detail of what he's saying."
Gaza's borders have been mostly quiet since the end of a massive Israeli offensive launched in December 2008 that has mostly halted rocket attacks from the territory where the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007.
Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the 22-day conflict sparked by the offensive.
On March 19, following her trip, Ashton will take part in a meeting of the Quartet -- EU, US UN and Russia -- on Moscow on March 19.
