Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)

The Government believes that the roadmap remains the most likely framework within which to achieve a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The members of the international quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United States and the Secretary General of the United Nations — remain committed to the roadmap. This commitment was reiterated in the quartet's statements of 4 May and 22 September.

The General Affairs and External Relations Council considered this issue again on 11 October in Luxembourg and in its conclusions reaffirmed the EU's long-standing positions on the quartet roadmap and Israel's proposed unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. While an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could represent a significant step towards the implementation of the roadmap, the council underlined that the withdrawal must not be an attempt to replace the roadmap and the two-state solution it encompasses. It also recalled that settlement activity is contrary to the roadmap.

The council reaffirmed the conditions endorsed by the Tullamore declaration on the conditions which must be met by any Israeli withdrawal plan. The following five elements are essential to make a Gaza withdrawal acceptable to the international community: it must take place in the context of the roadmap; it must be a step towards a two-state solution; it must not involve a transfer of settlement activity to the West Bank; there must be an organised and negotiated hand-over of responsibility to the Palestinian Authority; and Israel must facilitate the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Gaza.

It is of the utmost importance that no further time should be lost in implementing the provisions of the roadmap. I call on both sides to make every effort to fulfil the commitments they have entered into in respect of the roadmap.

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