Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for this question. As people will know, I have a lot of interest in this issue. I was in Israel and Palestine last week and met all the of the key political players there, from the Israeli Prime Minister to the Palestinian President. I subsequently asked for and got a debate at the Foreign Affairs Council, FAC, this week on how the European Union can collectively protect our own stated position in the Middle East peace process, which is to promote and protect the capacity to negotiate and deliver the two-state solution that is fair to both Israelis and Palestinians. We have also agreed that there will be a more comprehensive debate at the January FAC meeting on 17 January, specifically on the Middle East peace process and the role of the European Union, in the context of trying to protect a two-state solution as a viable option. This is in the face of what many people would regard as the creeping annexation of the West Bank due to expanding settlements, as well as on the back of the risk of annexation directly of parts of the West Bank, in particular the Jordan Valley, which Prime Minister Netanyahu has spoken of on more than one occasion. That, for the European Union, and certainly for Ireland would be a totally unacceptable and illegal course of action. There needs to be a significant deterrent from the European Union to ensure that that does not happen because that would effectively end the capacity for a Middle East peace process to deliver an acceptable outcome to both sides.

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