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EU Urges Meddle East Dialogue
Foreign ministers from the European Union (EU) member countries November 20 urged Israelis and Palestinians to stop the violence between them and return to the track of dialogue as soon as possible.
"The European Union exhorts the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to respect without delay the commitments they undertook at Sharm el-Sheikh five weeks ago and at Gaza on November 2," the 15 foreign ministers said in a statement released after their regular meeting here in Brussels.
It was referring to previous agreements reached between the two sides on halting the violence, which erupted in late September.
In the statement, the 15-nation bloc urged Israel to withdraw its forces to positions they held before September 28 and to lift restrictions on Palestinians' freedom of movement.
The ministers, who met to discuss Balkans, enlargement and other urgent issues, also asked Israel to lift financial sanctions against the Palestinian Authority and to avoid the use of excessive force.
The EU statement also urged the Palestinians to do "everything possible to bring an end to the violence."
The EU ministers said a US-led fact-probe commission on the causes of the violence agreed at the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting should begin its work straight away.
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