The EU's Middle East envoy said Thursday following a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that Europe was committed to ending the spiral of deadly Israeli-Palestinian unrest and reviving peace talks.
"We are trying to stop any kind of violence. We have been extremely active and we have been supporting any effort in this direction and will continue to do so," Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters after their one-hour discussion.
The Moratinos-Arafat meeting followed moves by Britain to resolve an impasse over Palestinian demands for 2,000 unarmed UN observers to be stationed in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Moratinos said Europe was deeply involving in trying to "remove the obstacles in order to restore trust and confidence and resume talks."
"But it is still very fragile. We cannot say that everything is solved," he added.
More than 300 people, the great majority of them stone-throwing Palestinians, have been killed in 10 weeks of clashes with Israeli soldiers, although the violence has eased off in recent days.
Arafat for his part said he welcomed Europe's political and economic aid to the Palestinians, including its efforts at the United Nations, without elaborating.
At the United Nations Wednesday, Britain's ambassador Jeremy Greenstock said most Security Council members agreed that "a neutral, third-party presence would have a de-escalatory impact" in the Palestinian territories.
Greenstock did not go into details, but British diplomats said the draft resolution would likely endorse the general principle of an international presence in the territories without giving it a size or mandate.
The council was due to resume its consultations later Thursday -- GAZA CITY (AFP)
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