European Union Decided Not To Recognize The Unilaterally Proclaimed State of Palestine
European Union has decided on Monday not to recognize a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state, considering that the acknowledgement of such state would harm any chances of restoring the peace process.
The foreign ministers of the European countries that are members of the EU made this decision in Brussels, where they gathered to analyze the situation and express their worry about the consequences of the unilateral proclamation of the Palestinian state.
The meeting of the 27 foreign ministers comes a day after Catherine Ashton, EU foreign policy chief, received a letter from Saeb Erekat, chief Palestinian negotiator, in which Palestinian leadership urges the EU body to back their claim for a a sovereign state.
In a statement issued by the Foreign Affairs Council, Palestinians are being praised for their work of building the institutions for the future state of Palestine, and reiterated the support in this regard.
The Council also expressed its readiness to recognize a state of Palestine, but it added that the urgent progress needed now is to implement the two-state solution to the conflict between Palestinians and Israel.
By this declaration, the European foreign council showed that the European Union is not ready to follow into the steps of Latin Americans countries like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and others, who recognized the state of Palestine a week ago but rather favors the continuation of the direct talks between the two sides.
In the same statement, it is reiterated the idea that the existence of Israel and the right of the Palestinians to have their own state can not be called into question.
The statement also condemns Israel’s refusal to extend the moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank.
This European stance comes at a time when George Mitchell, U.S. envoy to the Middle East, came to meet Netanyahu in an attempt to revive the direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Previously, Netanyahu had praised America’s decision to renounce convincing Israel to extend the moratorium on the settlements in the Palestinian territories.11
