Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 70 and 72 together.

My discussions in Washington with the Secretary of State Mrs. Clinton provided a welcome and timely opportunity to discuss with her the issues of the Middle East, which are high priorities for the EU and the US, both individually and as members of the international Quartet. I briefed Mrs. Clinton on my recent visit to Gaza. She updated me on the continuing US efforts to bring the Israeli and Palestinian sides together for proximity talks intended to begin a final push to reach an overall settlement between them, and we discussed how the EU can help to support these efforts. I accompanied the Taoiseach to his meeting with President Obama the following day, where I was invited to give my impressions of the situation in Gaza. I also had an opportunity later that day to discuss the situation with Vice President Joe Biden.

The announcement on 9 March of further Israeli settlement plans in East Jerusalem was an element of all these discussions. These plans, announced when Vice President Biden was in Jerusalem, led to the withdrawal of Palestinian agreement to begin proximity talks, which Senator Mitchell had announced only the day before, and attracted widespread international condemnation, including a statement which I issued on 11 March. I stated that the Israeli action called into question their genuine commitment to seek a settlement in the planned proximity talks. The United States also condemned the announcement in unusually strong language and Vice President Biden stated publicly, while still visiting Israel and the West Bank, that the action was directly contrary to the mutual trust that needed to be established to reach a settlement.

Following my visit to Gaza on 25 February, I reported to my EU colleagues at the informal Foreign Ministers meeting in Cordoba on 6 March. I stressed the unacceptable prolongation of the blockade of Gaza; the dire humanitarian consequences for its population, who cannot be held responsible for the actions of a minority of militants in their midst; and the importance of continuing international focus on these problems and on the need for a full and sustained reopening of the crossing points to human and commercial movements. I also urged other leaders, and, in particular, the new EU High Representative, Catherine Ashton, to visit Gaza themselves to see the situation and maintain the pressure on this issue. I have been pleased to note therefore that both High Representative Ashton and UN Secretary General Ban have now visited Gaza, and also that they were allowed to enter Gaza from Israel, as all political visitors should be. We are succeeding in returning a degree of international attention to this issue, but I am under no illusion that we need to keep pressing to convince Israel that its blockade of Gaza is politically counterproductive and in fact strengthens militants, as well as being morally unacceptable.

Both of these issues, the continued expansion of settlements and the blockade of Gaza, featured in the discussion on the Middle East at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on last Monday week. The main focus of EU efforts is on the political efforts, led by the Obama Administration, to commence final status negotiations. I agree with this priority, because ultimately the only complete and lasting solution to these political and humanitarian issues is to end the occupation and to achieve the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security. Despite the setbacks caused by the Israeli announcement there are still hopes that this process can be got under way in the near future, and much of our discussion in the EU has been on how we can not only help the process reach that important jumping-off point, but continue to sustain it also in the very difficult negotiations that will have to follow. It will, however, remain an important priority for this country to retain also a focus on the key humanitarian and justice issues on the ground which we believe could wreck any negotiation process, including the questions of settlements and of Gaza.

See this speech in context