BARACK OBAMA’S renewed effort to tackle the Arab-Israeli conflict brings Washington closer to European policy on the Middle East but significant differences remain, a senior EU official said.
As European foreign ministers prepare to assess the situation at their regular meeting on Monday, the official questioned Mr Obama’s call for phased Arab-Israeli peace talks and said all issues should be addressed together if progress was to be made.
Separately, the ministers are expected to impose sanctions on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and other members of his entourage.
The ministers’ meeting, their first since the reconciliation pact between the Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas, comes days after Mr Obama called for an Arab-Israeli peace deal based on the 1967 borders.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton welcomed Mr Obama’s speech, saying “his ideas and objectives find a clear echo in the work the EU is doing”.
The official saluted Mr Obama’s stance on the 1967 borders, saying Washington was beginning to “catch up” with Europe.
“Obviously the fact that President Obama is swinging in that direction is extremely, very important, but it’s still lagging far behind the position of the Europeans, which is way ahead,” he said. “I don’t think that he has expressed a position on the future status of Jerusalem as strongly as the Europeans have, and on the question of refugees as well.”
The official took issue with Mr Obama’s push for phased talks, beginning with borders and security. “We think that all the problems should be taken together, should be addressed together in order for us to make progress, rather than trying to unlink some issues from others.”
The ministers will make a statement on Fatah-Hamas pact, which Israel claims is a blow to peace. “This statement will have to state the position of the EU, watch, you will see, the discussion is still going on but it’s going to be an interesting one,” the official said.
Israel wants EU countries to reject any Palestinian government which includes Hamas as long as it refuses to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
The ministers will also discuss how to respond if Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas follows through with his plan to seek United Nations recognition of a Palestinian state in September.
The official urged caution on that, saying “things might happen” in the peace process which could lead to a revision of that plan. He recognised divisions within the EU over such a move.
“It’s true to say . . . there are some differences among member states and so we have between now and September or maybe after September if there would be a draft resolution on the table then we will have to see how we can try to be united on that issue.”
