By DPA,
Brussels : European Union (EU) foreign ministers Sunday called on the Palestinians to set aside their divisions and forge a consensus government in order to facilitate border crossings into the Gaza Strip and restart the Middle East peace process.
“We all have an interest in the reunification of the Palestinian voice. That’s at the heart of today’s (Sunday) meeting,” British Foreign Minister David Miliband said, ahead of dinner-time talks in Brussels with Palestinian, Egyptian, Jordanian and Turkish officials.
“It is time for the Palestinians to start talking to each other,” Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said. “If we can’t overcome the division in the Palestinian society, it will be very difficult to move forward both with Gaza and the peace process.”
Sunday’s talks were the second held within four days by EU top diplomats with their counterparts from the region. On Wednesday, they hosted Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who stressed the need to stop arms bound for Hamas from being smuggled into the Gaza Strip.
The focus of Sunday’s meeting was on the Palestinians, whose divisions between Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, pose a major obstacle to peace with Israel.
While Palestinian Foreign Affairs Minister Riyad al-Maliki was in Brussels, Hamas officials holding parallel talks in Cairo insisted that they would continue smuggling weapons into Gaza.
“What Europe wants is a consensus government (in the Palestinian territories),” said Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. “We are not asking anything impossible from Hamas.”
Though the EU lists Hamas as a terrorist organisation, some EU ministers say no peace can be achieved in the Middle East unless Hamas is also brought into the equation.
The Brussels talks were expected to look at how the EU can help to reopen the border crossings, to make it possible for humanitarian aid to reach Palestinians who suffered severe hardships during the Israeli offensive into Gaza.
The EU had a small monitoring team at the Rafah crossing from 2005-07 and has offered to deploy it again if all sides agree.
Hamas has said it also wants Turkish monitors to join an EU mission.
EU foreign ministers were expected to welcome a decision by new US President Barack Obama to appoint George Mitchell, a former US senator, as special envoy to the Middle East.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has worked with Mitchell before, said he is “uniquely well-qualified” for the post.
“For our part, we in the European Union are ready to do what it takes to bring this conflict, finally, to an end,” Solana said in a statement published earlier this week.
EU foreign ministers were to meet again Monday and Tuesday in Brussels for their regular General Affairs and External Relations Council.