Israeli, Palestinian foreign ministers to attend EU meeting
JERUSALEM - Israeli and Palestinian foreign ministers were due at a meeting in Brussels between the EU and its southern neighbours on July 14, but the Palestinian Authority denied the two would meet.
It would be the first time since the Gaza war began in October 2023 that Israeli and Palestinian ministers attended a high-level meeting in the same room.
The office for Israel's foreign minister said that alongside the ministerial meeting, Mr Gideon Saar would hold talks with the EU's top diplomat Kaja Kallas and the bloc's Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica.
Mr Saar is also expected to meet with foreign ministers on the sidelines of the event, the statement added.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) confirmed the attendance of foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin but denied media reports that any meeting with Mr Saar was on the agenda.
A statement said that Ms Shahin would give a speech 'focusing on the suffering of the Palestinian people under the ongoing war of extermination and displacement in the Gaza Strip, the systematic starvation policy practised by the occupying state, and the financial blockade imposed on the Palestinian government'.
It said she would also address the situation in the occupied West Bank, where violence is surging and Israel is waging a months-long military operation in the north that has displaced tens of thousands of Palestinians.
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The foreign ministry said Ms Shahin was scheduled to hold meetings with Ms Kallas and a number of European foreign ministers.
'The minister will demand an immediate halt to the crimes of genocide, displacement and annexation, and to compel the Israeli government to comply with the international will for peace and open a political negotiation process to end the occupation and enable our people to exercise their right to self-determination,' the statement said. AFP
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