| After all, nobody's blown up in Brussels... |
Israel should maintain contact with new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in spite of renewed violence, the European Union said on Tuesday in advance of a visit by EU officials to the region. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut ties with recently elected Abbas, the moderate successor to the late Yasser Arafat, because of his failure to reign in Palestinian militants carrying out attacks on Israel. "I ask Israel to give him (Abbas) a chance," Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, told reporters after a meeting of the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. "Mr Sharon and Mahmoud Abbas should meet urgently to discuss the roadmap," he added of an international peace plan sponsored by the United States, United Nations, the EU and Russia. The European Union sees progress towards peace in the Middle East as one of its top foreign policy priorities of 2005 and is anxious to see the United States re-engage in the second term of President George W Bush. Asselborn will visit the region from Jan. 19-20 where he will meet Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Labour Party leader Shimon Peres in Jerusalem on Tuesday. He visits Gaza on Wednesday where he will meet Abbas. He will also meet his Palestinian counterpart Nabil Shaath.