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EU Representative of Foreign Policy Solana to Visit Israel, Palestine
The European Union (EU) High Representative of Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana will go to Israel and Palestinian territories on January 1, the outgoing EU presidency state France announced on Sunday.
The assistant spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Valero, said that Solana will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat the peace proposal made by US President Bill Clinton.
"EU remains determined to do all that is expected of it so that the chance for a negotiated peace be seized by the two sides. The French presidency of EU is in close contact with (next) presidency state Sweden on this purpose," the spokesman said.
France will end its EU presidency on Sunday and will be succeeded by Sweden.
Both Arafat and Barak have partially rejected Clinton's proposal, which includes concessions by Israel to Palestinians of sovereignty over East Jerusalem in exchange for a compromise on the problem of Palestinian refugees who were driven out of what is today Israel in 1948 and 1967.
EU has expressed its support to the proposal and called on the two sides to accept it.
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