JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Recent events in the Middle East could revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets the right tone in a speech on Sunday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.
"A lot of important things are taking place," Solana told reporters on Thursday in Jerusalem, the first stop on a diplomatic trip for talks with Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian leaders.
He cited U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo a week ago addressed to the Arab and Muslim world, in which he spoke of the urgent need for a Middle East peace settlement.
Solana also cited this month's election result in Lebanon which Western powers took as a promising development since Iranian-backed Hezbollah failed to score a breakthrough.
He looked forward to Friday's election in Iran, where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faces a challenge from moderate Mirhossein Mousavi.
This could be a good moment, Solana said, to "see how we can bring back the situation to something that can be moving in the right direction," after a year of no progress in the peace process, and an Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
It would be helpful if Netanyahu in his policy speech made a commitment to the "two-state solution" and to a freeze on Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the top EU diplomat said. "That's what we expect to hear and I am sure something of that nature will happen."
He declined to speculate on how the EU might react if Netanyahu, who heads a right-leaning coalition including parties opposed to any halt to settlements, continues to dodge endorsement of a peace agreement based on Palestinian statehood.
Western powers and previous Israeli governments endorse the principle of two states as the only viable solution.
Obama's speech was well received in the Arab world, Solana said. "If we continue working in that direction and we have an impulse on the part of prime minister Netanyahu we may be able to begin talks."
(Writing by Douglas Hamilton, editing by Diana Abdallah)
Source: Reuters
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