EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he hoped a crucial crossing between Gaza and the outside world, which has been closed by Israel for most of the past four months, would be reopened on a regular basis soon.
EU officials who monitor the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt have threatened to abandon their mission if Israel keeps closing the passage for what it says are security reasons.
"We hope to have in a few days or weeks -- we hope days -- a response on a renewal of our presence in Rafah," Solana said on Thursday at a joint news conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni after they met in Tel Aviv.
The Rafah passage, previously controlled by Israel, was handed to EU-supervised Palestinian control last year under an accord brokered by the US.
Israel has kept the crossing closed for all but 12 days since Palestinian gunmen captured an Israeli soldier in June and took him into the Gaza Strip. It fears militants would try to sneak the soldier across the border to Egypt and also says Rafah has become a conduit for weapons smuggling into Gaza.
Livni said that while talk was needed about operational issues at Rafah, Israel was happy with the EU's involvement there, the first time it has accepted a European role in security aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.
"We are going to negotiate with the Europeans on the future terms," she said. "But we are very positive about the role of Europe in monitoring the Rafah passage."
Solana arrived in Israel on Wednesday for meetings with top Israeli and Palestinian officials, the first leg of a six-day tour of the Middle East meant to assess the political mood of key players in the region.
EU officials were doubtful that Solana's trip would yield breakthroughs, acknowledging early on in the trip that divisions between Israelis and Palestinians remain as deep as ever.
After meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Solana said he reported on his efforts with the Israelis.
"I have tried to work with the government of Israel to try to upgrade the crossings which are very fundamental," he told reporters.
Solana was expected to push Abbas and his Fatah Party to boost efforts to form a unity government with the Hamas-led Palestinian government, which is isolated from the international community over its refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence.
But Abbas said after the meeting that there is no point in further dialogue between his Fatah movement and Hamas.
"Dialogue has overused its purposes, and everything is clear now," he said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in