Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The European Ministerial Council in Brussels announced a meeting that will bring together the Palestinian Prime Minister, Muhammad Shtayyeh, and the foreign ministers of the European Union member states, next Monday, "the day after tomorrow," for an informal working lunch on the sidelines of the foreign ministers' meetings on the same day.
A statement of the council said that the ministerial meeting will discuss the latest current developments in many international and regional issues, with a focus on the file of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Sahel region and the coastal states in West Africa.
The meeting between the Palestinian Prime Minister and the foreign ministers of the European Union comes after the European foreign policy coordinator, Josep Borrell, held a telephone conversation with the new Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen. According to a European statement distributed in Brussels two days ago, Borrell expressed his desire to build on the recent momentum in relations between The European Union and Israel, after the Association Council resumed last October after a ten-year hiatus, a number of recent high-level visits. .

"Israel is one of the EU's closest partners in the Middle East, and there are a number of global challenges that we need to confront together, not the least of which is Russia's brutal war of aggression in Ukraine, including Russia's military cooperation with Iran," the European statement said.

  Borrell welcomed Israel's normalization of relations with a number of Arab countries, and renewed the European Union's readiness to support this development, expressing hope that this would have a positive impact on the peace process in the Middle East.

  He reiterated the European Union's support for the two-state solution, and the need to restore the political horizon to resolve the conflict. In light of current developments, the EU foreign policy adviser also recalled the well-known EU positions on the need to avoid unilateral measures and expressed his strong concerns about the large number of casualties.

   Borrell and Secretary of State Cohen agreed to meet as soon as possible to continue their dialogue in person, possibly at the Munich Security Conference in February. The European official also invited Minister Cohen to visit Brussels