Jordan urges EU to oppose Israel settlements in Jerusalem

AMMAN (AFP) – Jordan's King Abdullah II on Sunday urged the European Union to help put a halt to Israeli settlement building in Jerusalem, ahead of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.

"European countries should press Israel to stop its unilateral actions in Jerusalem," a palace statement quoted the monarch as telling EU ambassadors to Amman at a meeting.

"Such actions threaten Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, seek to change the city's landmarks and get rid of Arab residents there," he said, referring to settlement building in the Holy City's mainly Arab eastern sector.

The king hailed a proposal by the EU's current Swedish presidency that east Jerusalem should become the capital of a future Palestinian state as part of a Middle East peace deal.

"Peace, stability and security will not be achieved in the region unless an independent Palestinian state is established," said the king, whose country signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

A row has broken out between Israel and the EU over a proposal that the bloc call for an "independent, democratic, contiguous and viable state of Palestine comprising the West Bank and Gaza and with east Jerusalem as its capital."

The draft text was prepared for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, but diplomats said it could change ahead of the talks because of opposition from member states.

Israel occupied and annexed east Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and considers it the Jewish state's "eternal indivisible capital," in a move never recognized by the international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced a freeze on new permits for house construction in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank but the decision does not affect east Jerusalem.