Solana presses for Middle East crisis talks

Escalating violence in the Middle East has prompted the EU to launch a diplomatic offensive aimed at bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to the negotiating table.

After a sudden upswing in violence in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Israel, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana left for the region on Monday (21 May).

His four-day visit, which includes stops in Egypt, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and Israel concludes today (24 May), with meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Solana will urge the two leaders to meet for the first time in over a month in an attempt to break the deadlock. EU diplomats hope that this may restart the peace process and help restore calm, after a week of intra-Palestinian violence, rocket attacks on Israel and heavy fighting between the Lebanese security services and militants.

Arab League states are pressing the EU and its partners in the Middle East Quartet - the US, the United Nations and Russia - to push Palestinian and Israeli leaders to move toward an ‘end game’ which sets out the parameters for the founding of a Palestinian state.

The idea is gaining support among some European officials who now admit that the policy of promoting incremental steps has failed to deliver results.

Diplomats of the Quartet could meet in Berlin on 30 May to discuss the issue. The sense of urgency has been heightened by warnings from Israel that it may launch a ground offensive in Gaza to stop rocket attacks from targeting Israeli villages.

On Tuesday, Solana toured the town of Sderot, Israel, with Defence Minister Amir Peretz, to see the damage done by an attack that killed an Israeli.

Peretz urged the EU not to restart direct funding to the Palestinian government.

"The unity government has no control over the anarchy in the Gaza Strip and it lends legitimacy to murderous acts perpetrated within the Palestinian Authority and the continued bombardment of Israel," he said.

Escalating violence in the Middle East has prompted the EU to launch a diplomatic offensive aimed at bringing Israeli and Palestinian leaders back to the negotiating table.