EU intensifying efforts to revive Middle East peace process: Borrell

LONDON

The European Union is intensifying efforts to revive the Middle East peace process with the goal of achieving a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

In a blog post Monday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell evaluated the bloc's stance on the matter.

"We are entering a new phase in the hundred year old Israeli-Palestinian tragedy. It could be a very dangerous one for global peace, and the international community must mobilize to avoid it," he said.

"For too long, we have tried to dismiss the Palestinian issue as if it no longer existed or as if it would resolve itself," he added.

He stressed that the international community, of which the EU is a part, had failed to effectively implement the Oslo Accords, which have been in existence for three decades.

"Since Oslo, the number of Israeli settlers has multiplied threefold in the occupied territories, while the possible Palestinian state has been cut back into a labyrinth of not interconnected areas," he said.

"Every day we call for a two-state solution, but as the Palestinian representative told me during the UN General Assembly: ‘Apart from calling for it, what are you doing to get it?,'" he said.

Borrell acknowledged that the most challenging decisions often arise on the brink of crisis and that the international community is now on the precipice.

He reiterated that the two-state solution remains the most viable option, despite its apparent complexity, and called on all stakeholders to concentrate their political efforts on its realization.