EU pushes Israel to accept Jerusalem as shared capital - Summary

Brussels/Jerusalem - European Union foreign ministers on Tuesday pushed Israel to accept Jerusalem as a shared capital of a future Palestinian state, urging the two sides in the Middle East conflict to return to negotiations as soon as possible. The EU has grown increasingly concerned over the deadlock in Middle East peace talks. The bloc is keen to put pressure on both sides to resume negotiations, but is wary of committing itself to a specific solution before talks resume.

"The EU will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including those with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties," a joint statement of EU ministers read.

At the same time, it stressed that "a way must be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states."

But the statement backed away from earlier draft proposals which had called for East Jerusalem to be recognized as the capital of a future Palestinian state, after some member states warned it could limit peace negotiators' room for maneuver.

"If you want to negotiate, you can't decide the status question in advance," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle pointed out.

The United States has not taken a position on the future of Jerusalem, leaving the Israelis and Palestinians to determine its status through final settlement negotiations.

"We are aware of the EU statement, but our position on Jerusalem is clear," State Department spokesman PJ Crowley told reporters in Washington. As a final status issue, this is best addressed inside a formal negotiation among the parties directly."

The EU has long maintained that Jerusalem should be the capital of both the Israeli and the Palestinian state, regularly criticizing Israel for building settlements in East Jerusalem.

The EU "recalls that it has never recognized the annexation of East Jerusalem" and "calls on the Israeli government to cease all discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in East Jerusalem," Tuesday's statement said.

Controversy erupted in late November when Sweden, current holder of the EU's presidency, drafted a declaration calling for the recognition of East Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state.

Leaks of the draft provoked outrage in Israel, where it was seen as an attempt to partition the city.

While EU ministers backed away from that stance in their final declaration, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that the Israeli reaction had revealed how important a player the EU is in the Middle East.

"The somewhat unplanned dialogue and discussion in recent days have demonstrated very very clearly that the voice of Europe does count," he said.

Within an hour of the publication of the EU's statement, Israeli officials issued a statement criticizing it, while Palestinian officials welcomed it.

The statement "ignores the primary obstacle to achieving a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians: the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiating table," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor.

The EU "has chosen to adopt a text which, even if it contains nothing new, does not contribute to the renewal of negotiations," he said in a statement.

Ahmed Qureia, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee, welcomed the EU move.

"We welcome the European foreign ministers' decision and we consider it as a step forward," said Qureia in a statement.

He said that no Palestinian could accept any solution which did not have east Jerusalem as the capital of an independent Palestinian state.