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Israel Seeks Compromise on EU Settlement Sanctions

(Telegraph-UK) Robert Tait - Israel is seeking talks with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in an effort to water down new penalties against Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The move is aimed at finding a formula that will prevent Israel from abandoning the Horizon 2020 scientific research program. Israel, the only non-EU member of the project, is expected to contribute 515 million pounds to the fund but is expected to receive much more in subsequent grants. Zeev Elkin, the deputy foreign minister, told Israel Radio on Friday: "We are ready to hold a creative dialogue with the Europeans....We are asking the Europeans also to take into consideration the legal and other problems this creates on the Israeli side. We...are ready to negotiate. But if the terms are the way they are today - unprecedented and several steps beyond anything heretofore - then we won't be able to do it." One Israeli official noted: "Europe has taken the 1967 lines and turned them into the be all and end all when even the Palestinians accept that there will be changes to the borders."
2013-08-12 00:00:00
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