European Union won’t accept changes in Israel’s 1967 border

BRUSSELS: The European Union said on Thursday it will not recognise any unilateral change in Israel’s borders from before the 1967 Middle East war. The EU took the stance in an apparent bid to reject any effort by Israel to use the security barrier it is building in the West Bank to change borders unilaterally. Israel says the barrier is vital to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers, but the Palestinians have branded it a land-grab that deprives them of territory they want for a state. “The European Union will not recognise any change to the pre-1967 borders other than those arrived at by agreement between the parties,” said a draft statement approved by EU foreign ministers for issue on Friday at a bloc summit. The statement condemned Israel’s “extra-judicial killing” of Hamas’s spiritual leader and founder Ahmed Yassin on Monday and said a cycle of violence had taken the region further away from a negotiated settlement. —Reuters

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