During a visit to Brussels on Wednesday 6 March, a delegation from the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1975, called on the European Union to move from words to action on the two-state solution.
“Reiterating a position is not enough”, said Riyad Mansour, Palestine's permanent observer to the UN, while the EU constantly reiterates its support for a two-state solution.
For CEIRPP President Sheikh Niang, Senegal's representative to the UN, “without effective diplomacy, the momentum of Resolution 2334 from December 2016 (which recalls in particular support for a two-state solution, NDLR) will be lost”. “Belgium and the EU can play an essential role in resolving the conflict”, he added.
Mr Mansour, for his part, expressed the wish that “the EU and the Member States be in the forefront in terms of commitment, as they are a very powerful driving force that can influence events in a positive way”.
Mr Niang and Mr Mansour called on Member States to recognise the State of Palestine, as this could provide Palestine with the means to negotiate. Of the 139 countries that have recognised the State of Palestine, nine are members of the EU: Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Czechoslovakia at the time), Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Portugal and Sweden.
For the Palestinian representative, the EU could also call for a meeting of the Quartet leaders (EU, UN, US and Russia). While the Americans could soon propose a plan for peace in the Middle East, Mr Mansour hoped that Europeans would defend the consensus reached on a two-state solution, believing that the United States should not be allowed to decide how to resolve the conflict. According to him, the Middle East “should not be an incubator for experiments”. “It is irresponsible to try to throw consensus (on the two-state solution) in the garbage”, he said, referring to the American attitude. Mr Mansour also asked the EU to discuss with the United States on this subject and on the United Nations’ Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA). “We hope that the EU will continue to support UNRWA in a predictable way”, also stressed the CEIRPP President. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)