{"id":206257,"date":"2011-07-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:08:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=206257"},"modified":"2019-03-12T19:08:34","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T19:08:34","slug":"auto-insert-206257","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-206257\/","title":{"rendered":"High Representative Ashton’s speech on North Africa and the Arab world (European Parliament, 6 July 2011) – EU press release\/Non-UN document (excerpts)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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European Union<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

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Brussels, 6 July 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 267\/11<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

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Speech by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton<\/p><\/div>\n

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on North Africa and the Arab world<\/p><\/div>\n

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European Parliament<\/p><\/div>\n

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Strasbourg, 6 July 2011<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

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\/…<\/p><\/div>\n

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And this brings us to the search for peace in the Middle East, between Israel and Palestine.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The changes in the surrounding neighbourhood, the speech of President Obama in May, the moves towards Palestinian reconciliation, the approaching UN General Assembly: all these bring a renewed focus on the possibility of talks and a solution.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I have worked tirelessly for this possibility – working closely with President Abbas, Prime Minister Fayyad and Prime Minister Netanyahu and with many others in the region; and with our Quartet partners and with the Arab States to look for a strong and ambitious way forward, in which the EU plays the leading role this Parliament wishes us to.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The UN, the US and Russia responded to my letter requesting a Quartet meeting in Washington next Monday.<\/p><\/div>\n

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This will build on the Quartet meeting I chaired in Munich earlier this year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Since then, the envoys have met intensively – and also, for the first time, with negotiators from both sides.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I do not underestimate the challenge, but my objective is clear – to try and adopt a statement next week that will help the Israelis and Palestinians to bridge the gap, and allow for a return to the negotiating table.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Many are looking to September – and the prospect of a resolution.<\/p><\/div>\n

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We don't yet know what that might say, and what reaction it might bring.<\/p><\/div>\n

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But I am clear that my energies should focus on trying to use this time to get the talks moving – and, on that, the EU is united.<\/p><\/div>\n

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And we have a strong position from the Council Conclusions – a united position.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I understand very well the concerns for the people of Gaza, having visited twice and seen for myself the situation.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I stress the need to get the crossings open, to provide what people need, and to ensure the security that Israel needs.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It is there that our energy should lie – and I am encouraged by meetings this week on the ground – but there is much more to do.<\/p><\/div>\n

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I thank Greece for its offer to route humanitarian aid to Gaza, in coordination with the UN.<\/p><\/div>\n

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\/…<\/p><\/div>\n

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European Union Brussels, 6 July 2011 A 267\/11 Speech by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton on North Africa and the Arab world European Parliament Strasbourg, 6 July 2011 \/… And this brings us to the search for peace in the Middle East, between Israel and Palestine. The changes in the surrounding neighbourhood, the speech of […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1329,2773],"document-source":[2605,2505],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[5200,1813,1749,1797,1905,1638,2741],"entity":[1889],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-206257","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-press-release","document-category-speech","document-source-european-council","document-source-european-union-eu","document-subject-humanitarian-relief","document-subject-middle-east-situation","document-subject-palestine-question","document-subject-peace-process","document-subject-peace-proposals-and-efforts","document-subject-quartet","document-subject-statehood-related","entity-intergovernmental-organization-or-multilateral","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/206257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/206257\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=206257"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=206257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}