TOP EU DIPLOMAT CALLS FOR JERUSALEM TO BE SHARED CAPITAL. RAMALLAH (AFP) — Europe’s top diplomat Saturday called for a Palestinian state sharing Jerusalem as its capital with Israel. Palestinians are seeking to achieve statehood in Gaza and the West Bank with annexed east Jerusalem as their capital. Israel claims Jerusalem as its undivided and eternal capital. In recent weeks tensions have soared, with Israel pushing plans to build new homes in East Jerusalem and Jewish extremists demanding the right to pray at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound. On Saturday, European Unions foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini visited the Gaza Strip, the coastal enclave devastated by a 50-day summer war between Hamas and Israel, before talks in Ramallah with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. Mogherini has been pushing for ways of reviving the peace process that has been frozen since April, since beginning her first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Friday. The world “cannot afford” another war in Gaza, she said there early on Saturday, and also appealed for the creation of a “Palestinian state.” “We need a Palestinian state — that is the ultimate goal and this is the position of all the European Union,” she said during a trip to the territory devastated by its third conflict in six years. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that a draft resolution was on course to be submitted to the UN Security Council this month calling for an end date for Israeli occupation.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:37:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015