Palestinian PM Welcomes EU Call Regarding Jerusalem

Wednesday December 09, 2009 03:37 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad welcomed the call of the European Union to make Jerusalem a capital of two states.

The Palestinian Premiere said this position of the EU is an important landmark on the way of getting the International community to stand up for its responsibility towards ending the Israeli military occupation of Palestine including East Jerusalem, occupied 1967, and to enable the Palestinian people to establish its state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday called for negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis to find a way to make Jerusalem the capital of two nations, Israel and the future Palestinian state.

"If there is to be a genuine peace, a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states," the EU foreign ministers said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, presented a draft document last week supporting the division of Jerusalem and the recognition of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

For their part, Israeli officials have strongly objected to the Swedish draft resolution saying that it does not recognize Israel's claims to the eastern part of the city as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Israel's Foreign Ministry warned the move would damage the EU's standing as a mediator in the Middle East, Haaretz added.

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