Catherine Ashton, who heads the European Union’s foreign policy programme, is stopping in Gaza to see for herself how the EU’s aid to Palestinians is being used, before she continues on to Moscow for a meeting of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet: the EU, US, UN and Russia. The EU is the biggest contributor of aid to the Palestinians, according to the BBC. Ashton’s visit is unusual: officials at this level rarely visit Gaza itself because of diplomatic complications, and it follows Ashton’s condemnation of new Israeli settlements which have dampened hopes for a Middle East settlement.

Links to other sites: AFP, Aljazeera, BBC, Xinhua

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.