A “strong” Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Sunday alongside Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa.
Mohammed Mustafa © Lukasz Kobus/EU
A “strong” Palestinian Authority is needed to bring peace in the Middle East, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Sunday alongside Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Mustafa.
“A functional Palestinian Authority is in Israel’s interest too, because in order to make peace, we need a strong Palestinian Authority, not a weaker one,” Borrell said.
He made the remarks to journalists just before holding talks with Mustafa on how the Palestinian administration can be built up to take over Gaza rule from Hamas.
“We see the meeting today as a very important opportunity for us as a government and new government to present our international partners with the outlines of our priorities and plans for the coming period,” Mustafa said.
The Brussels meeting, focused on international aid, was being chaired by Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, in connection with the 1993 Oslo Accords that established a series of arrangements between the Palestinians and Israel.
Egypt has thrown its full diplomatic weight behind the European Commission’s newly announced €1.6 billion multi-year support program for the Palestinian Authority (PA), calling it a clear affirmation of Europe’s commitment to Palestinian statehood and institutional resilience — explicitly excluding any role for Hamas in Gaza’s future.
The head of the Council of Europe, the continent's leading human rights watchdog, told Reuters it was worried about any violations of rights in Turkey after the jailing of President Tayyip Erdogan's chief political rival and hundreds of arrests that followed mass protests.
The European Union will increase its financial support for the Palestinian Authority with a three-year package worth around 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion), the European Commissioner responsible for the Middle East told Reuters in an interview.
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