The European Union has threatened to cut its aid to the Palestinian Authority if the US-led indirect peace talks, dubbed "proximity talks", fail to make progress.
The 300 million-euro budget, scheduled for disbursement in a seven-year period, is aimed at pressing the Palestinian Authority to agree to a peace treaty with Israel that would supposedly lead to the formation of a Palestinian state.
A delegation from the European Parliament is visiting Palestinian territories and the occupied lands to assess the peace prospect in order to reconsider the size of the financial aid.
"If that (peace) isn't coming then I can see a number of questions… if at the end of the day we don't have a state, then what are we doing with the money," Christian Berger, the EU's representative in al-Quds (Jerusalem) told Reuters.
Berger, however, has also suggested that if there was a breakthrough in the proximity talks there would be a likelihood of raising the aid budget.
Observers describe the European suggestion as a deliberate attempt to bribe the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority into a sort of peace agreement that accommodates only Israeli interests.
Defying numerous UN resolution and international demands against any expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, the Tel Aviv regime has come to the current peace negotiations while openly engaging in planning and building numerous settlements.
EU is now deliberating whether it should spend the Palestinian Authority fund mostly on 'poverty alleviation plans' or on the union's "geopolitical goals".
The Israeli regime has expressed concern that if the proximity talks fail to achieve the kind of peace that they desire, the Palestinian side may declare statehood unilaterally with the hope of obtaining financial support from the EU.
Seven EU member states have already recognized Palestine as a state and host Palestinian embassies in their capitals.
[Source: Press TV]
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