Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the Europa building in Brussels on Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. European Union foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Monday Feb. 26 to debate ways to revive Middle East peace efforts and discuss the crisis in Venezuela. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Luxembourg Foreign Minister, Jean Asselborn has urged his European Union counterparts to recognize a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as a response to US support for the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“The recognition of Palestine as a State would be neither a favor nor a carte blanche, but rather a mere recognition of the right of the Palestinian people to their own state,” Asselborn said, in a letter to the EU foreign ministers, adding: “Indeed, if we want to contribute to solving the conflict between Israel and Palestine, we must never lose sight of Israel’s security conditions, as well as of justice and dignity for the Palestinian people.”
Despite US administration saying that settlements are not inconsistent with international law, the EU said, nevertheless, that it continues to believe that the Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law. It also supports the two-state solution, with Jerusalem as a shared capital.
Asselborn’s letter was sent in advance of the monthly EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels planned for today, PNN reports.
