No Israeli officials will meet Sweden’s foreign minister during her trip to the region, a spokesman says today, after she called for a probe into the killings of Palestinian assailants.
Erik Wirkensjo, spokesman for Swedish foreign minister Margot Wallstrom, told AFP she had wanted to meet both Israeli and Palestinian officials during her visit to the region from Thursday to Saturday.
“This time it was not possible to visit Israel,” Wirkensjo says.
Asked why there were no meetings planned, he says such questions must be “asked to the Israelis.”
Swedish Foreign minister Margot Wallstrom talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on January 18, 2016. (AFP / JOHN THYS)
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon blames “schedule problems” and declines to provide further details.
In January, Israel’s deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely said Wallstrom would no longer be welcome in the country after she called for investigations into the killings of Palestinian assailants by Israeli forces.
Wallstrom had earlier said Israel must avoid “extrajudicial executions”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Wallstrom’s call as “outrageous.”
— AFP
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