EU's Ashton extends Israel visit as Palestinian UN bid draws near

Sep 14, 2011, 14:58 GMT

Jerusalem/Brussels - EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Wednesday she was extending her current visit to the Middle East, in hopes of finding a formula to restart peace talks as Palestinians prepare to ask the UN to recognize Palestinian statehood.

'The mandate that I have to be in the region, the Middle East, this week, is to seek ways in which we can get negotiations moving,' she said in Israel, where she met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

She said she would remain in Israel 'longer than I planned, at their request, so that we can talk again this evening in order to try and further that objective,' a statement from her office quoted her as saying.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said last week that he intends to submit the Palestinian's application for UN membership once he arrives in New York on September 19 for the General Assembly session.

He has said he is taking this path because of a lack of any discernible peace talks with Israel, leaving the Palestinians no option but to try and achieve their aims through other routes.

The Palestinian move is opposed by Israel and the US, and European and US diplomats have been working to try and find a mechanism to ensure that the UN bid does not hamper future Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The negotiations between the sides broke off a year ago, after Israel refused Palestinian demands to extend a partial, limited 10-month freeze on construction at its West Bank settlements.

Palestinians have insisted that no new talks can take place until a new freeze is called, which takes in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem as well.

Palestinian officials have said that the bid for UN statehood recognition does not run counter to any willingness to negotiate, and is aimed at achieving a just peace.

Israel and the US however say a Palestinian state can only come into being through negotiations, and not through any unilateral move.

Ashton said Wednesday she has held discussions with the Arab League in Cairo to ensure that the result of the Palestinian UN bid does not prevent peace talks from restarting.

'I hope that in the coming days what we'll be able to achieve together will be something that enables the negotiations to start. That is the objective of the European Union in all that we do,' she said.

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