Barroso urges new peace talks

RAMALLAH - Agence France-Presse

European Commission Chief Jose Manuel Barroso called for a return to Israeli-Palestinian talks on July 8, warning the peace process must not become “an orphan of the Arab Spring.”

Barroso made the remarks during the first day of a trip to the West Bank, where he met Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

“The momentous change that we are witnessing throughout the Arab world should constitute an incitement and not a deterrent to the resumption of negotiations,” he said after meeting Fayyad, according to an advance copy of his remarks.

“The Middle East peace process cannot become an orphan of the Arab Spring.” Direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since late September 2010, and efforts by the peacemaking Quartet, which groups the EU, United Nations, United States and Russia, have had little success.