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German FM urges Israel:
End Gaza export ban
ISRAEL: German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Sunday urged
Israel to lift export restrictions against the Gaza Strip, on the eve of
a visit to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory.
After talks with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman,
Westerwelle said the Palestinians needed improved economic prospects if
peace talks were to stand a chance.
"We want to strengthen moderate Palestinian forces, and to do that we
need better economic development," he told reporters.
"That is why I called for exports from the Gaza Strip to be permitted
and made concrete proposals to my counterpart," Westerwelle added
without elaborating.
Westerwelle, who is also Germany's vice chancellor, is on Monday to
visit Gaza which is controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas. He is to
meet business leaders and representatives of the UN agency for
Palestinian refugees, visit a school and inaugurate construction on a
badly needed sewage treatment plant, for which Germany is providing 20
million euros (28 million dollars) in funding.
He will not meet Hamas officials.
Lieberman said Israel was not convinced of any international demand
for exports from Gaza.
"I'm not sure that there is place on the market," he said, despite
what he called a successful programme for strawberry and flower exports
to the Netherlands.
But in what Westerwelle called a "breakthrough," Lieberman said he
expected progress "within two or three weeks" on the practical concerns
holding up the construction of the Gaza sewage plant, near the Israeli
border.
In early July, Israel gave the go-ahead for the international
community to import construction materials into the Gaza Strip provided
it supervises the projects for which they are used. The move followed
intense international pressure after a deadly Israeli raid in May on a
fleet of aid ships bound for Gaza.
A blanket ban on importing building materials had stifled
reconstruction in the Gaza Strip since Israel's devastating 22-day
offensive, which ended in January 2009. Jerusalem, Tuesday, AFP |
