The Jerusalem Post reports: The EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, made up of the 28 EU foreign ministers, issued a statement Monday calling for a renewed multilateral approach to the Israeli Palestinian diplomatic process in the “spirit” of the 1991 Madrid Conference.
In an apparent admission that an agreement will not come through bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations which have been at the heart of the Oslo process since 1993, the statement said, “The establishment of an International Support Group and a further international conference are both possible ways to contribute” to moving the stalled diplomatic process forward.
The declarative statement, though at points highly critical of Israel, did not – as some in Jerusalem had feared – call for any new steps against Israel because of its settlement activities.
In fact, the language in the two sections on the settlements – though problematic from the viewpoint of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – is not substantially different than language that appeared in the resolutions endorsed by the ministers last year.
Read more at the Jerusalem Post