Palestinian FM urges EU to find multilateral peace-sponsoring mechanism

RAMALLAH, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki urged Monday the European Union to take an active role in finding an international multilateral mechanism to sponsor the peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis.

Malki spoke at a joint press conference with his visiting German counterpart Heiko Maas after his meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Ramallah headquarters.

He reiterated the Palestinian position that the U.S. administration "is not an acceptable mediator between us and Israel," after its recent decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Malki highlighted that Palestine is committed to the two-state solution and all the UN and international legitimacy resolutions, and that the Palestinians call for "an international peace conference to form an international multilateral group committed to the international legitimacy to overlook the peace process between us and Israel."

For his part, Maas stressed the importance of finding ways to promote the peace process with suitable follow-up mechanism, and that his country backs the two-state solution to put an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"On the international level, we are aware of the responsibility and that there must be progress in the peace process and we believe that it is very difficult to have this progress without the U.S. administration," said Maas.

He added "we hope that the doors are not shut, and we need dialogue between both sides to enhance the situation in the region."

On Dec. 6, 2017, almost one year after Trump took office, he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital and ordered the U.S. State Department to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.

As a result, the Palestinians disqualified the United States from being the sole sponsor of the peace negotiations with Israel and called for a multilateral peace mechanism.

On Feb. 20, Abbas presented a peace initiative in a speech before the UN Security Council, proposing to hold an international peace conference in mid-2018 to jumpstart final status negotiation based on a two-state solution and international legitimacy resolutions. Enditem