Palestine calls on EU to facilitate peace process

RAMALLAH: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki has urged the EU to take an active role in finding an international multilateral mechanism to sponsor the peace process between Palestinians and Israelis. Malki spoke at a joint press conference with his visiting German counterpart, Heiko Maas, after his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Ramallah headquarters. He reiterated the Palestinian position that the US administration “is not an acceptable mediator between us and Israel”, after its recent decision recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Malki highlighted that Palestine was committed to the two-state solution and all the UN and international legitimacy resolutions, and that Palestinians called for “an international peace conference to form an international multilateral group committed to the international legitimacy to overlook the peace process between us and Israel”. For his part, Maas stressed the importance of finding ways to promote the peace process with suitable follow-up mechanisms, and that his country backed the two-state solution to put an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He added “we need dialogue between both sides to enhance the situation in the region”. On December 6, Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordered the US State Department to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city. As a result, the Palestinians disqualified the US from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations with Israel and called for a multilateral peace mechanism.