EU and Norway to hold urgent meeting on Israeli-Palestinian crisis
'This important meeting aims to bring all parties together to discuss measures to accelerate efforts that can underpin a negotiated two-state solution.'
By TOVAH LAZAROFFA MAN STANDS next to a cart carrying a sack of flour distributed by UNRWA in the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip in January, 2018.(photo credit: IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA / REUTERS)
The European Union and Norway plan to hold an urgent meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee in Brussels Wednesday to address the Palestinian funding crisis, Gaza and the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.“In an effort to support the peace process and address the dire situation in Gaza, Norway and the EU will convene an extraordinary session of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) on January 31 at the ministerial level,” UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov told the Security Council in New York last week.“This important meeting aims to bring all parties together to discuss measures to accelerate efforts that can underpin a negotiated two-state solution and to enable the Palestinian Authority to resume full control over Gaza,” he said.“I call on the parties to work constructively and produce tangible outcomes that support these objectives,” Mladenov added.The meeting comes as the US has said it plans to halt financial support to the Palestinian Authority and has severely curtailed its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency which provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees.The AHLC was established in 1993 to coordinate development assistance for the Palestinian people. The 15 member body includes the members of the Quartet: the UN, the EU, Russia and the United States.Other members include Canada, Egypt, Japan, Jordan, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, Israel and the Palestinian Authority.It is one of the few high level forums in which Israeli and Palestinian officials cooperatively meet. It often meets twice a year; the last such gathering was held in September in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
