Luxembourg's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, once again advocated, on Monday 20 January in Brussels, for a recognition of the State of Palestine by several Member States.
"I know that it is individual countries that recognise a state. But there is no point in having one country or another recognise it. It takes a movement of a group of countries", he explained upon his arrival at the EU Council. He said it would show the Palestinians that Europeans support them, without going "against the interests of Israel or the United States".
If the policy of settlements is not interrupted, "the two-state solution will disappear", he warned. In the eyes of the Luxembourg minister, this is the only possible solution. "There will be no peace in this region without a Palestinian state", he said.
At the end of the EU Council, Mr Asselborn said he found the debate among ministers "useful" and welcomed the willingness of "some colleagues" to "do more". He added that it was not out of the question that "some States might get together to try to move forward".
Mr Asselborn also called on his counterparts to remain mobilised, refusing that Europeans should once again be content to react to a US peace plan.
Asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge to annex the Jordan Valley, the minister referred to Russia's annexation of Crimea. "If in Israel it really reaches the point of annexing the Jordan Valley, I think that we are then in an international situation that we knew in 2014 in another country", he said. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with Agathe Cherki)