Stoltenberg: NATO supports comprehensive settlement to Palestine question

BRUSSELS, Dec 6 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that it was early to comment on the expected speech of US President Donald Trump on the status of Jerusalem ,but he stressed the importance of finding a solution to the Palestine question.
"The right thing now is to listen to the speech and not to start to comment on the speech we haven't heard and listen to what the (US) President has to say before we comment on the speech," he told a press conference after a two-day meeting of the NATO foreign ministers this afternoon.
"In general I can say that as an organization NATO is not involved in the Middle East Peace Process but allies attach great importance to a just and lasting peace and comprehensive settlement in the Middle East and especially Israel-Palestinian conflict," he said.
The foreign ministers of the 19-membr Alliance discussed today ways to increase NATO's role in projecting stability and fighting terrorism, he said.
"This year, we started training local forces in Iraq. In areas such as countering improvised explosive devices, military medicine, equipment maintenance, and reform of the country's security institutions," said the NATO chief. "Today, Allies looked to the future of the NATO training activity in Iraq and expressed their full commitment to it. A number of Allies also announced that they will contribute to the new Crisis Management Center in Jordan, as part of NATO's new capacity building package for Jordan. And I really welcome this contribution by several Allies," he stated.
"We also discussed how our role within the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS should evolve as the Coalition moves from combat operations to stabilization efforts." "This is something that both the Coalition and the Iraqi government want. The Coalition has recovered over 95 % of the territory claimed by ISIS and liberated seven million people," Stoltenberg concluded. (end) nk.msa