Brussels, 20/07/2010 (Agence Europe) -Avigdor Lieberman, speaking on the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has repeated his open invitation to all European Union foreign ministers to visit the Gaza Strip. According to the Luxembourg minister Jean Asselborn, Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman has not given up hope that international interlocutors, including the EU, and his own prime minister will accept a plan to end the situation in Gaza, which he sketched out for his OSCE colleagues. The Israeli press reports, too, that a “confidential letter” has been sent to Washington. Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, was the first to hear of the plan at the weekend. Lieberman says that he spoke of it to the OSCE ministers. He himself stated, too, that Prime Minister Netanyahu had yet to approve the plan. They are ideas, not decisions, an Israeli diplomat said.
Broadly, Lieberman is proposing total withdrawal from Gaza, with that part of the territory becoming independent. The Israeli press has speculated that the foreign minister, who has no regard for the Palestinian Authority, believing it not to be a credible interlocutor, would thus snub the Authority denying it any formal role in Gaza which is governed by Hamas. The international community and the EU would be asked to formally acknowledge the end of the Israeli occupation in “Hamasland” and all that derives from this, that is to say that there would no longer be any obligation to provide support, assistance and protection to the population under the terms of international law. An international force could be sent, suggests Lieberman, making a direct appeal to the French Foreign Legion. The EU would be responsible for a programme to rebuild the territory's economic and social infrastructure, as it is currently doing. Lieberman has proposed an additional list of projects (desalination plant, electricity generators, water and wastewater treatment).
Asselborn, who met Lieberman, said that the EU was ready to resume its police mission in Rafah to secure the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, according to a press release from his press staff. In the course of their exchange of views, they also discussed the peace process. Asselborn repeated his incomprehension at the Israeli government's strategy of continuing the massive development of settlements in East Jerusalem, while expressing the view that this constituted an insurmountable obstacle to any peace accord with the Palestinian Authority. He was particularly interested in Israeli intentions in this area once the partial moratorium on settlements expires in September. (F.B./transl.rt)