Last update - 00:00 01/09/2007
Italian PM says Palestinian divisions hurt the peace process
By The Associated Press
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said Saturday that continued Palestinian divisions will hurt chances to move forward the Middle East peace process, particularly with a U.S.-sponsored conference in the offing.
Prodi is on a two-day visit to Jordan to encourage talks between Israel and the Palestinians and is scheduled to meet Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday.
"Divisions between Palestinians will not help the peace process," he told reporters in a press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Marouf al-Bakhit following their talks in Amman.
"I'm sure the Palestinian divisions will bring negative consequences for any future development in the area," Prodi added, saying the militant Hamas group needed to respect prior peace agreements.
In June, fighters from the Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in five days of fierce fighting resulting in the establishment of rival governments in the two different parts of the Palestinian territories.
Prodi praised the fledging talks between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week, saying they were addressing concrete problems about their future coexistence.
"This is the right way to move. We must give strength to this dialogue that is now going in a good direction, but it's not strong enough," he said.
Prodi said Italy and the European Union supported the U.S.-sponsored peace conference set for November, but called for greater European unity on policy issues.
"The problem is to put the European countries together and shape a policy, otherwise we will also be ineffective, Prodi added."
Al-Bakhit, for his part, urged that every effort be made to push the two parties to sit and negotiate a settlement and establish a Palestinian state side by side with a secure Israel.
Jordan's King Abdullah, who is currently in Saudi Arabia, is making a fresh bid of his own to energize the peace process with trips to France and Egypt planned this week.
EU foreign policy chief visits Middle East before key summits
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana went to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in the region before key conferences on the Mideast peace process.
Solana was to hold talks with Abbas and Olmert during his three-day visit, his office said. Other high-ranking politicians to meet Solana include Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayad.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Portugal next week; the international Quartet of peacemakers - the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia - meets in New York later this month and a U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference is to be held in November.
Pressure is mounting on Israel and the Palestinians to make substantial progress before the peace conference, proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush after Hamas' takeover of Gaza.
Past talks have broken down over questions of final borders; how Jerusalem will be shared, and whether Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation would be allowed to return to their former homes in Israel, along with millions of descendants.