EU PLEDGES $53 MILLION TO HELP BUILD PALESTINIAN STATE
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| Norway's Foreign Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide and the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini at the start of a session of the International Donor Group for Palestine at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels -Reuters |
The European Union has announced a new funding
package of 42.5 million euros (nearly $53m) to help the Palestinians build
their new state.
The announcement on Wednesday came as
Brussels urged the US to not go it alone in any effort to make peace between Israel
and the Palestinians.
The EU
warned that doing so would end in failure.
"Any framework for negotiations
must be multilateral and must involve all players - all partners - that are
essential to this process. A process without one or the other would simply not
work, would simply not be realistic," EU foreign policy chief Federica
Mogherini said.
"Nothing without the United
States, nothing with the United States alone," Mogherini told reporters in
Brussels.
Her comments came at an emergency
meeting of an international committee coordinating Palestinian development aid.
Government ministers from Israel and Egypt, as well as the Palestinian prime
minister and a US senior official attended the talks.
The meeting was the first of its kind
since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital,
breaking with an international consensus that the holy city's status should be
resolved in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Mogherini said "this is a
difficult moment" for the region. She said that Wednesday's meeting would
focus on ways to promote a two-state solution to the conflict and expressed
hope that it "could be an element of facilitation for restoring some trust
and a level of confidence."
As the talks began, the EU announced
the funding package, including substantial support in East Jerusalem, which the
Palestinians hope to make their future capital.
The meeting was also set to look at
ways to support the UN agency working with Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The US has been the largest donor,
giving one-third of the total budget. But the Trump administration withheld
half of the first installment of payments this year, demanding reforms as a
condition for future aid.
UNRWA says the move has sparked its
biggest ever financial crisis. It's called on donors to speed up their funding,
and Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Russia, Belgium,
Kuwait, the Netherlands and Ireland have taken steps to do so.
SOURCE:
AL JAZEERA
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