EU-Israeli ministerial meeting next week scrapped
(BRUSSELS) - The EU and Israel have shelved a ministerial meeting scheduled for next week, though foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman will hold bilateral talks with European counterparts, diplomatic sources said Friday.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton "has informed representatives of the 27 EU nations that the conditions aren't there" for a formal EU-Israel meeting, a diplomatic source said.
Ashton spokesman Lutz Guellner said the postponement of the meeting shouldn not be interpreted as "a diplomatic reaction" to Israel's controversial authorisation of new settlement building in east Jerusalem.
The decision not to hold the talks next week was taken jointly following a trip by Ashton to the region so as to avoid duplication, after her talks with Israel this week, Guellner said.
The EU-Israel meeting could take place instead in April or May, the Spanish EU presidency said.
Lieberman will nonetheless be in Brussels on Monday to hold bilateral talks on the margins of an EU foreign ministers' meeting, notably with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, diplomats said.
While wandering the EU corridors in Brussels Lieberman may bump into former British prime minister and international envoy on the Middle East Tony Blair, who is due to address the EU foreign ministers.
Other sources said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also expected in Brussels next week, with talks planned with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
The Middle East Quartet -- the United States, the United Nations, European Union and Russia -- urged Israel Friday to stop building settlements and set a bold target for a final deal with the Palestinians by 2012 as it tried to kickstart the stalled peace process.
The Israeli plan to build more homes in annexed east Jerusalem led the Palestinians to call for a halt to peace talks and precipitated the worst crisis in US-Israeli relations in years.
East Jerusalem is the mainly Arab half of the Holy City which was captured and then annexed by Israel after the 1967 Six Day War.
Ashton has made a four day tour of the Middle East this week.
Her visit to the Gaza Strip on Thursday was marked by Palestinian rocket fire from there into Israel, which killed a Thai farm labourer.
The Israeli army retaliated overnight with air strikes targeting what the military called "terror sites," including a weapons manufacturing facility.
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