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Abbas under "Intense" Pressure from EU to Return to Talks

(Jerusalem Post) Herb Keinon - PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is under "intense" pressure by the international community to return to negotiations, with every European leader he meets telling him he must renew talks, a senior European diplomat told the Jerusalem Post on Monday. European leaders are arguing that at the moment it is the Palestinians who are being perceived as the ones refusing the opportunity to negotiate over the future. The EU gave the PA 500 million euro in 2009, with another 500 million euro contributed by individual European states on a bilateral basis, the senior European official said. "As long as there is hope that [a Palestinian] state will be formed, we are happy to do so, and we know that once it is established we will give more for security and to develop the economy. But now in Europe - in parliament and among taxpayers - people are asking how long we will do this....We can't continue to pay for the creation of a state when the state is not coming."
2010-02-10 10:36:12
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