(Communicated by the Foreign Ministry Spokesman)

Israel regrets the one-sided wording of the EU Foreign Affairs Council conclusions. Facts and history both prove that Jewish settlement never constituted an obstacle to peace. Therefore, the EU's focus on this issue is mistaken.

The root cause of the absence of a peace accord is the Palestinian refusal to engage in direct negotiations and their unwillingness to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, as recently exemplified by Mahmoud Abbas' UN speech and Khaled Mashaal's Gaza speech. This one-sided position taken by the EU rewards rejectionism and does not contribute to promoting a permanent peace agreement.