EU warns Israel, Palestinians of the cost of peace failure

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/22/us-israel-palestinians-eu-idUSBREA0L1PT20140122

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat (L-R), U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni shake hands at a news conference at the end of talks at the State Department in Washington, July 30, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

(Reuters) - Both sides of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks risk paying a high price in losing European Union trade and aid if negotiations collapse, the EU ambassador to Israel said on Wednesday.

For long seen as a "payer not a player" in the region, the European Union has started making clear that its role as Israel's biggest trade partner and the Palestinians' largest donor should not be taken for granted.

"We have made it clear to the parties that there will be a price to pay if these negotiations falter," ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to draw up a broad framework deal that would open the way for a final round of detailed discussions to end the generations-old conflict covering all the core elements dividing the two sides.

However, despite more than five months of talks, there has been no sign of any imminent breakthrough.

The EU has grown especially frustrated by Israel's repeated announcement since the talks started of new Jewish settlement building on land the Palestinians want for their future state...READ MORE