Written answers

Thursday, 4 October 2018

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Middle East Peace Process

Photo of Bernard DurkanBernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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69. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the extent to which he and the international community can continue to exert pressure to bring about an amicable peace process in the Israel-Palestine conflict; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40555/18]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Government’s policy on the Middle East has always been based on the belief that the two sides would need a degree of international assistance and pressure to reach a peace agreement. This is not dissimilar from our own peace process.

For over a year, the United States Administration has been actively exploring the possibilities for re-launching the process to reach a comprehensive peace agreement. This is welcome, and I have met with and spoken to the US team on a number of occasions to encourage their work, and to underline the key parameters for an agreement which the EU has long espoused.

What is needed now is the resumption of direct talks, which are ultimately the only way to achieve peace. I hope that the US peace plan, when it emerges, will provide a fair and workable basis for such talks to resume. I understand that the Palestinian leadership has concerns in relation to what a US proposal may contain. And I have been clear in my conversations with the US that a peace plan cannot work without Palestinian acceptance. In that regard, I have also urged President Abbas to keep an open mind on the US plans.

I have also urged the EU to encourage and engage with a US initiative, provided it meets the parameters for a fair and successful resolution of the conflict. But I have also emphasised the need for the EU to continue our own work to help preserve and create the political and physical space in which the two-state solution, to which the EU remains firmly committed, can be achieved.

At EU level, issues relating to the Israel-Palestine conflict are regularly discussed at both Ministerial and official level. In the last year, the members of the Foreign Affairs Council have held meetings on the margins of the Council with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Abbas, and the group of Arab Foreign Ministers, as well as discussing the situation in Gaza specifically at their meeting in May. The Peace Process was discussed most recently by EU Foreign Ministers at the informal Foreign Affairs Council in August. There we considered how the EU can productively engage, and better use, all the levers at our disposal to influence the parties to the conflict. We must ensure that the EU’s support for the region is focused on delivery of the two-state solution.

Last month, the Council appointed a new EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, Dutch diplomat Susanna Terstal, who will continue the work of her predecessors, engaging with partners to strengthen the peace process.

The situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territory will remain high on my agenda.

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