Progress in Middle East peace talks is urgently needed because there is "no alternative" to a negotiated deal, the EU foreign policy chief said as she prepared to visit the region Wednesday.
The European Union has grown increasingly critical of the lack of progress in the talks between Israel and the Palestinians but has so far lacked the leverage to bring the two sides to talks.
"Urgent progress is now needed towards a lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace, and the EU will continue to support all efforts towards that goal," Catherine Ashton said in a statement issued overnight. "There is no alternative to a negotiated solution."
On Wednesday and Thursday, she is due to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and to push for Israel to reopen access to the Gaza Strip.
"We want to see the state of Israel and a sovereign and viable state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security," Ashton said.
The EU’s top foreign policy official spoke as U.S. sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks remained in limbo, following the expiry in September of an Israeli freeze on new settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Both sides have placed the blame on the other for the stalemate in negotiations, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying on Monday that he was ready to agree on a new settlement freeze, but the U.S. retracted their offer. Netanyahu said the reasoning behind the U.S. decision was they thought a "settlement freeze will lead to a dead end, in which we would have entered an endless path of settlement freezes."
"During the cabinet meeting on Sunday, I called on Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas], to hold direct negotiations, but I got no answer," Netanyahu said.
"We took many actions in order to move the peace process forward but the Palestinians did not even advance one millimeter despite the settlement freeze. The Palestinians entered talks only toward the end of the freeze and the only subject they wanted to discuss was an extension of the freeze."
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