From the Liveblog of
Saturday, March 2, 2024
EU envoy details plans for ‘preparatory’ conference to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
A top European Union official offers new details regarding Brussels’ effort to host a “Preparatory Peace Conference” with regional stakeholders in order to advance a two-state solution.
The initiative is part of EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell’s 10-point roadmap for Israeli-Palestinian peace, which was leaked to the press in January.
In an interview with The Times of Israel, the EU Middle East peace envoy Sven Koopmans indicates that the confab envisioned by his boss will fall short of the international peace conference long sought by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
“A big conference where everybody is expected to be present at the same time is currently unlikely to succeed. But what you can work on is a Preparatory Peace Conference where you bring together everyone — perhaps some in separate rooms and at variable times,” the EU envoy says.
The two conflict parties would be invited to the preparatory conference, but it need not be considered a failure if they refuse to show because foreign ministers from Europe, the Middle East and other countries interested in offering incentives for the parties to reach a two-state solution will be attending as well, says Koopmans.
“At the conference, you adopt a working plan to develop all the components of a comprehensive regional peace. This is different from the old-fashioned model — the Camp David model — where you have the Israeli leader and the Palestinian leader brought together by the American President,” Koopmans maintained.
Conference attendees will begin work on regional cooperation projects in a variety of fields that can be adopted on the day that a peace deal is reached between Israel and the Palestinians.
Koopmans points to the package of political, economic and security incentives that Brussels unveiled in 2013 to help support the peace negotiations being led by then-US secretary of state John Kerry. “I now have the mandate to build on that package and to explore what is possible also with Jordan, Lebanon and other main regional actors.”
