EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell has rejected parts of the US peace plan for the Middle East, provoking an aggravated response from Israel, that fully backed the US proposal.
Donald Trump, the US President presented the plan for the peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on 28 January, in presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The EU had requested some time to examine Trump’s peace and on Tuesday it made its conclusions public, with Borrell saying that the US initiative declines from the “internationally agreed parameters”.
Trump’s “deal of the century” would give Israel vast swathes of Palestinian land and under international law, the EU does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied since 1967.
Borrell expressed the Union’s concerns over the statements made on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank, which, “if implemented, could not pass unchallenged.”
The EU’s Foreign Policy chief also stressed that “to build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties.”
“The fact that the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, chose to use threatening language towards Israel, so shortly after he assumed office and only hours after his meetings in Iran, is regrettable and, to say the least, odd,” tweeted Israeli Foreign ministry Spokesman Lior Haiat on Tuesday.
