JERUSALEM: EU's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana meets Israel's leadership ahead of Mideast peace conference

European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana met Israeli leadership on Wednesday (November 14) in an effort to narrow differences with their Palestinian counterparts ahead of a planned Middle East conference on Palestinian statehood slated for the last week of November in Annapolis, Maryland. Solana shuttled between Jerusalem and the West Bank, where he met top Palestinian officials and acknowledged growing tensions between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggling to draft a joint document that would serve as the foundation for a U.S.-hosted conference. In Jerusalem, Solana first met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Olmert's office said he told the European Union's top diplomat that Israel insisted "the foundation for the post-Annapolis negotiations with the Palestinians be recognition of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people". The condition threatened to complicate further attempts to reach a joint documents as a senior Palestinian negotiator swiftly rejected Olmert's demand. Later in Jerusalem, Solana held talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and called on all parts to exert efforts in order to make the U.S.-sponsored summit a successful one. Solana, who took part in drafting the Road Map to peace in 2003, said that Israelis and Palestinians have practically followed the peace plan. "I think that the potential agreement is around the terms of the first phase of the Road Map. I would not say the whole Road Map, at least the first phase," Solana said during a joint news conference with Livni. Israel said it would not implement any peace accord until Palestinians met security commitments under the road map. Livni called on Arab countries to stand in support of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. "It is not for the sake of Israel, but it is for the sake of the peace process and to support the meaning is not to dictate the outcome of the negotiations or not to put obstacles before Annapolis but just to join and to support the bilateral process, which is the only process," Livni said. Israeli and Palestinian leaders have said they hoped to be able to reach agreements before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.

ITN Source | November 15, 2007

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