Amid growing concern in Jerusalem that the European Union will begin showing flexibility on the three criteria for legitimizing the Palestinian Authority if a new Palestinian national unity government is formed, the EU is officially saying that nothing yet has changed. "It is too early to discuss any change," a senior EU official in Tel Aviv said this week. "If the Palestinians set up a government of experts it will be an improvement of the current situation, and must be considered. But there are no reports yet on a change of EU policy [toward the PA], and there must be some sort of assessment before this takes place." The Quartet has said it would not deal with the PA government until it recognized Israel, forswore terrorism and accepted previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
The Quartet, meanwhile, met in Cairo to discuss ways to push the diplomatic process forward and Palestinian attempts to form a new unity government. The meeting took place at the residence of the Russian ambassador in Cairo and included US envoy David Welch, UN envoy Alvaro de Soto, Sergei Iacovlev from Russia and Marc Otte from the European Union. "The aim of this meeting is to come up with a common analysis of the situation and consider the next move, in particular if and when the Palestinians form a national unity government," European Union Middle East envoy Otte told AFP. "One of the main issues will be how to respond to a national unity government," a UN official told the French news agency. |