UN: EU and Israel clash over Arab-Israeli conflict and EU oppose Jewish settlements on occupied territory

Speaking at a press conference, Hungarian foreign minister Janos Martonyi, representing the rotating EU presidency, said the "dramatic changes and regional instability" make progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks "more imperative and more urgent than ever before. "Time is pressing, for both parties. The EU wants to help as much as it can with direct or indirect talks, and the parties can't avoid discussing the core issues," he added.

When pressed by Brussels-based journalists on Israeli settlement-building on occupied Palestinian land, seen by the EU and the Palestinians as a major obstacle to talks, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said this is a "prejudiced view".

The EU in 2009 froze a proposed upgrade of its relations with Israel, in part due to the Israeli bloody attack on the densely-populated Gaza strip and in part due to settlements. Last week, all four EU members of the UN Security Council - France, Britain, Portugal and Germany - backed a Palestinian resolution denouncing the settlements as illegal. Washington vetoed the measure.

EU-Digest