Vienna: Newly-elected Palestinian Legislative Council member, Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, met today with Austria’s Foreign Minister, Dr. Ursula Plassnik. Austria currently holds Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Dr. Plassnik chairs the Union’s General Affairs and External Relations Council.
The meeting focused on the current situation in Palestine, including the continuing Israeli occupation and the results of January’s parliamentary elections.
Dr. Barghouthi briefed Dr. Plassnik on Israel’s ongoing efforts to unilaterally force a change in facts on the ground through its policies of land expropriation, settlement expansion, movement restrictions, and its construction of the Separation Wall in the West Bank. He added that through fragmenting Palestinian areas into a series of cantons, and by severing ties between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel was seeking to undermine and preclude the creation of a viable, future Palestinian state.
He called for an international peace conference to bring resolution of the conflict back to its basis in international law, and to revive multilateral dialogue towards achieving a just and genuine end to the occupation.
He also stressed the significance of recent legislative elections in reflecting the commitment of the Palestinian people to building a truly democratic state, and in furthering the development of democracy in the region as a whole. He highlighted the need to respect the outcome of elections, and added that continuing international support for Palestine was critical to a just resolution of the conflict and the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
Dr. Plassnik declared the importance of maintaining close relations and cooperation between the peoples of Europe and Palestine, and emphasized the need to revive efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.