The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Baroness Catherine Ashton, has refused to rule out a European Union-wide boycott of the State of Israel, following questions put to get at a press conference today.
Asked as to whether the European Union would ever boycott Israel, Ashton initially said that the journalist in question had asked too many questions, and that she would only answer two.
The press conference, which mainly dealt with the sanctions placed upon Russia following the Crimean referendum yesterday, took a strange turn when Ashton flat out refused to address the question on how far European Union sanctions might go.
She did say, “Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas need to take some important decisions… The EU really do [sic] want a special relationship with both”.
But Ashton refused to address the boycott question, stating, “I’m not answering your third question”, before explaining again that she thought the journalist had asked one question too many.
Conservative Member of Parliament Bob Blackman said, “The UK government should announce an immediate veto on such a move. Israel is our close ally. Lady Ashton’s term of office cannot come to an end soon enough.”
Reports suggest that when pressed on the issue, Ashton said, “The EU opposes a boycott of Israel – we do not want to see Israel isolated”.
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