GERMANY AND BRITAIN BLOCK PALESTINIAN BID TO JOIN INTERNATIONAL OLIVE TRADE GROUP
According to European diplomatic sources, German and British representatives claimed that letting the Palestinians join the council could sabotage the Israeli-Palestinian talks now taking place under American auspices, Israeli Hareetz reported as quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
The talks’ resumption was conditioned on Israel releasing Palestinian prisoners in exchange for a Palestinian promise not to try to join various UN organizations, and not address the International Criminal Court in The Hague, including Israeli settlements halts on Palestinian lands, but Israel has repeatedly undermine the negotiation by announcing addition of thousands of settlement house units settlement recently.
The Palestinian application, which was prepared this summer by the Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry in Ramallah in the name of the State of Palestine, was supposed to be voted on at an olive council meeting in Madrid this week.
However, representatives of the European External Action Service claimed that the council is purely a technical organization, and therefore does not fall in the category of the organizations that the Palestinians promised not to join. Moreover, they said, membership would give the Palestinians access to technical assistance in an industry vital to their economy. But this view didn’t sway Britain and Germany, both of which opposed the application.
The International Olive Council (IOC), formerly the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC) is an intergovernmental organisation of states that produce olives or products derived from olives, such as olive oil.
The organization was concluded in Geneva on 17 October 1955 currently has 16 state members plus the European Union.
Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom were founding member states of the IOOC. All EU states are now represented at the Council by a single EU delegation.(T/P03/P04)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
