Spain supports Palestinian statehood on 1967 borders: FM

Foreign Minister of Spain Miguel Angel Moratinos said Wednesday that his country supports the establishment of an independent Palestinian statehood on the borders of 1967.

Moratinos made the statement in a joint news conference held in Ramallah with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, adding that Spain and the European Union "will keep exerting every possible effort to achieve the Palestinian goals."

"We can not wait for another 18 years after the Madrid peace conference. We should see a Palestinian statehood established on the borders of 1967," Moratinos told reporters.

Madrid hosted the first international peace conference in 1991, attended by Israel, the Palestinians, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. After the conference, Israel and the Palestinians held peace talks and signed Oslo peace accords in 1993.

He added that "the peace process will be frozen before Israel freezes settlement construction. We have asked the European Union to help us by forcing Israel to stop settlement activities."

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) officials as well as President Mahmoud Abbas insist that there will be no resumption of peace talks with Israel, unless the latter completely freezes all the settlement activities in the West Bank.

U.S. President Barack Obama has been exerting efforts to resume the stalled Middle East peace process, in which the Israeli settlement activities are the major obstacles for the resumption of the process.