ITALIAN EFFORTS ONGOING ON MEPP STATEMENT FOR NEXT

C O N F I D E N T I A L ROME 001343

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/04/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV IT IS
SUBJECT: ITALIAN EFFORTS ONGOING ON MEPP STATEMENT FOR NEXT
WEEK,S EU FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE MEETING

REF: ROME 01328

Classified By: DCM Elizabeth L. Dibble Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D)


1. (C) Office Director for Israel-Palestinian Affairs,
Davide La Cecilia, told Poloff on December 4 that his
delegation is still working hard to achieve a more "balanced
version" of the Swedish-proposed EU declaration on the Peace
Process, and that some progress has been made. The
declaration now contains "several passages that are positive
for our Israeli friends," including mention of upgrading
relations with the EU, acknowledgement of the Israeli
settlement moratorium, support for the idea that the
moratorium can lead to a resumption of negotiations without
other preconditions, and elimination of reference to
"Palestine" (without "state of").


2. (C) With the COPS Security Committee meeting scheduled
for today in Brussels, he said his delegation is now working
on some red lines, such as the elimination of language
referring to East Jerusalem as capital of a future state.
Efforts to cut the reference to Jerusalem as the capital of
two states, he said, face strong opposition, as this
expression has now entered into standard EU language, having
been used before, but only at the sub-ministerial level.
Another red line for Italy includes reference to the EU,s
readiness to recognize a future state of Palestine when
appropriate or in due time, he said; Italy fears this
language encourages a unilateral declaration of statehood,
but the formula proposed appeared in the Berlin European
Council Declaration in 1999, so getting it dropped may prove
challenging.


3. (C) La Cecilia said Italy,s main objective is to sustain
the efforts of the US administration and bring about an
urgent resumption of dialogue. He noted that the GOI was
working to get better results on the proposed declaration by
the end of today, with at least "constructive ambiguity" that
could satisfy all parties (jokingly adding that it was
unclear at this point whether the parties were the Israelis
and Palestinians, or the various factions of the EU).


4. (C) He added that the point regarding the future capital
was the most difficult. Some argue that if East Jerusalem is
mentioned in paragraph 1, amid specific language that
references a state of Palestine composed of the West Bank,
Gaza and East Jerusalem, this suggests that the whole of East
Jerusalem would be part of the future state, thus prejudging
negotiations. If instead there is reference to Jerusalem as
a future capital of both states, this could suggest a
neighborhood of East Jerusalem, such as Abu Dis, as capital,
consistent with prior negotiations.


THORNE