EU FMs' meeting to focus on Syria, Palestine

BRUSSELS, Jan 16 (KUNA) -- European Union Foreign Ministers are meeting in Brussels Monday with the spotlight on developments in Syria and Palestine.
"We'll have the first Council of Foreign Ministers this year that will start with an outlook at priorities we'll be facing in these first months. We'll focus today especially on Syria," EU High Representative Federica Mogherini told reporters ahead of the meeting.
The EU foreign policy chief said she will update Ministers on the EU initiative with regional powers and the discussions she had in Geneva last week especially with the new UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and UN special representative for Syria Staffan de Mistura and also with the Turkish Foreign Minister.
"We'll also have a discussion on the Middle East Peace Process, more of a brainstorming on the EU role especially in the relation with the quartet and our Arab friends," she said.
The ministers will discuss today the EU work and the EU positions and the EU diplomatic continuous work for the resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine and especially trying to lay the conditions for the parties to do their part and restart serious talks, she said.
Moreover, Mogherini stated that "today we mark the first anniversary of the beginning of the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, a deal that exactly one year after has delivered both on the nuclear related commitment Iran took and on the firm determination of the international community starting with the EU to fully implement also its parts of the deal." She noted that Iran relations have seen an increase in trade and economic relations that "is really significant." "We start the first Council of the year with the proof that diplomacy works and delivers and the EU will continue to work for the respect and the implementation of this extremely important deal," she added.(end) nk.tg