Ashton urged to step up pressure on Israel

Former prime ministers and presidents call on the EU to do more to make Israel freeze settlement policy

A group of 26 former of former presidents, prime ministers, and former senior EU officials have appealed to Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, to increase pressure on Israel to freeze its settlement building policy.

A spokeswoman for Ashton confirmed on Friday (10 December) that the foreign policy chief had received a letter from the 26 warning that Israel’s settlement expansion “poses an existential threat to the prospects of establishing a…viable Palestinian state”. The letter goes on to say that EU member states had to make “absolutely clear” that an upgrading of EU-Israeli ties should “not occur unless settlements are frozen”.

Signatories to the letter include Chris Patten, the former European commissioner for external relations and Javier Solana, a former EU foreign policy chief, Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor of Germany, Romano Prodi, a former prime minister of Italy and European Commission president, and Felipe González, a former prime minister of Spain.

Peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians have been stalled after Israel rejected repeated appeals from the EU and the United States to freeze its settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The Palestinians said they would not continue the talks unless Israel agrees to a freeze.

New timetable

The letter sent to Ashton, other EU institutions and member state governments, called on the foreign policy chief and EU foreign ministers to draft a new timetable by which the EU wants to see progress in US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It suggested April 2011, after which US mediation efforts should be stopped and the conflict referred to the United Nations Security Council.

The spokeswoman said that Ashton had read the letter and responded. “We welcome all the input into our policy on the Middle East peace process,” said the spokeswoman, adding that Ashton was “extremely engaged” in trying to further peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. She said the EU had no intention at this point of changing its approach to resolving the crisis.

EU foreign ministers are expected to discuss ongoing efforts to salvage peace talks between the two sides when they meet on Monday (13 December).