The European Union (EU) sees “eye to eye” with the Arab League regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state and making part of Jerusalem its capital, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday.
“The European Union and its Member States, and the League of Arab States and its Member States, see eye to eye first and foremost on the need to preserve the horizon of two states as the only viable one, with Jerusalem as the capital of both the state of Israel and the state of Palestine, and the need to preserve the status of the holy places,” Mogherini said after a meeting foreign ministers of member states in the Arab League.
“We have decided to coordinate our positions, our actions and it was a very clear commonality, as I said, of analysis but also of perspectives,” she continued. “We have full convergence of purpose.”
Mogherini also said that the EU was just as disturbed as the Arab League with some of the recent actions taken by the administration of US President Donald Trump, specifically moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and stripping financial support to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
“I have to say that we found each other on the same page in terms of recognizing the high importance that we both attach to the Palestinian – Israeli conflict,” she reiterated. “But I can also tell you that…we have also shared a lot of concerns about the situation currently on the ground.”
“The decisions by the US administration to move the embassy to Jerusalem and the current state of the financing of the UNRWA is something that worries us and our Arab friends equally and our common determination to make sure that the Palestinian people, including Palestinian refugees in Gaza for instance, but also in Jordan or in Lebanon or in Syria, do not suffer from the consequences of an under-financing of UNRWA.”
The EU foreign policy chief also appeared to make an implicit warning to President Trump whose administration plans to unveil a framework for a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We also know very well – both the Ministers of the League of Arab States and the European Union – that we have dealt with the conflict for long enough around our common table to know what can fly and what cannot fly,” she said.
“We believe it is wise to consider what can fly and what cannot fly in terms of peace plans before putting any plan on the table and avoiding any false step.”
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