Summary: 14 September 2008, Amman - The following is an edited summary of remarks by Mr Javier SOLANA, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), at a press conference following his meetings in Amman with HM King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Nader DAHABI and Foreign Minister Salah BASHIR. Mr Solana visited Jordan on the last day of his tour of the Middle East that also included Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Egypt.
"I have had a very good day here in Jordan. I met His Majesty the King, the prime minister and the minister of foreign affairs. We have very good relations with Jordan and your country is very important to me.
This visit to Jordan is part of a larger visit to the region. I was in Cairo yesterday, and I have been in Israel and in Ramallah. As you know, this is an important moment, before the UN General Assembly meets in New York. There will be meetings of the Quartet and of the Quartet plus the Arab League and there will be meetings with other countries during the week in New York. As we approach the end of the year we have to keep up the momentum in the peace process and in relations between the
region and the European Union. The EU will continue to be totally engaged. For us it is a question of our neighbourhood, it is a question of history and of the future.
The objective is to get an agreement by the end of the year. If this is not done, there must still be some momentum to continue the bilateral relationship between the Israelis and the Palestinians. I think that in the circumstances today, in Israel, with the primaries in Kadima, it will still possible to obtain something before the end of the year, and if not, to create sufficient momentum to continue the process into next year. But this must not be an everlasting process. There has to be a
calendar and there has to be an end. As far as US is concerned, I am sure that we will do things in such a manner that by time the new US President is in office there will not be a vacuum but, on contrary, there will be a continuation and there will a relationship with the members of the Quartet and the international community which will ensure that the dynamics that started 10 months ago can continue. We think that there should be a continuation, non-stop, of the negotiations between the
Palestinians and the Israelis, regardless of the time that will elapse until the new President of the US is in office and we will do our utmost to keep the process going.
As far as helping the Palestinian people is concerned, you know that the largest donor is the EU, and we not only provide humanitarian aid but we go beyond that, providing for example energy - electricity - and we have done this for the last three or four years, without any interruption. For us, the humanitarian situation of all the Palestinian people, no matter where they live, Gaza or the West Bank, is our first priority.
Our policy concerning the border crossing points from Gaza is to try to get them open for good. We had EU monitors at Rafah, who guaranteed the passage of everyone across the border when the crossing was open. It is not our responsibility to open the border but when it is open again our monitors are ready to be there again.
On the Syrian track, there are still no direct contacts between the two countries. They have chosen Turkey for the role of go-between and it is playing a very good role. The EU, and France in particular, has also offered to play the role of catalyst, when they have real contacts. So we are ready to do that but we will have to wait until the two sides, Israel and Syria, get together in a much more direct manner."
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