A delegation of European Community leaders, arriving here on the last leg of a Middle Eastern tour, expressed confidence that the Arab governments would return to the peace talks and urged the Palestinians do the same.
The E.C. leaders also condemned, in strong language, the recent spate of terrorist attacks against Israelis, saying they point up the urgent need for the peace talks to resume.
The delegation arrived in Israel on Thursday, following visits to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
The group was led by Danish Foreign Minister Niels Petersen, whose country currently holds the rotating E.C. presidency.
It also included Robert Urbain, Belgian minister of foreign trade; Mark Elliott, British undersecretary of state; and Hans van den Broek of the Netherlands, the E.C. commissioner for foreign affairs.
Petersen, interviewed on arrival at the airport, said the visit came at “a moment when developments give rise to serious concerns.
“The vicious cycle of violence and terror in the occupied territories seems (to be) deepening. It certainly makes itself felt also in Israel,” he said.
“The European Community firmly condemns the recent killings, including the murders of two Israeli policemen,” he said.
Petersen said confidence-building measures are needed by all parties to the conflict.
The so-called E.C. troika was welcomed by Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Yossi Beilin. “We believe it is important that you are coming in such tense days, in order to have an objective view (of) the conflict,” he said.
URGED TO HELP STOP THE VIOLENCE
The delegation met Thursday with Palestinian leaders Faisal Husseini and Hanan Ashrawi, and later with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
After meeting with the Palestinians, Petersen said Israel’s deportation of some 400 Hamas activists has put the Palestinians in a “difficult position.”
He said the E.C. considers the action to have been illegal.
At the same time, he said he told the Palestinians that “they cannot escape part of the responsibility for the deteriorating” situation in the territories.
He said they “must cooperate in stopping the violence” and should return to the talks.
Husseini said he stressed to the E.C. leaders the Palestinian commitment to the peace process. But he hoped they could persuade the Israelis to stop using force against the Palestinians to demonstrate their support of the peace process.
The delegates’ meeting with a top Palestine Liberation Organization official in Jordan on Wednesday triggered statements of protest from Israel’s Foreign Ministry, which charged that such meetings fuel illusions that the ground rules for the peace talks can be changed.
Those ground rules bar the PLO from directly participating in the Middle East talks.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry lodged similar objections following recent decisions by Britain and Belgium, taken independently, to resume contact with the top PLO leadership.
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