LOC13:44
10:44 GMT
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry during a meeting with EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Policy Oliver Varhelyi.
CAIRO, May 27 (KUNA) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry said Monday it is essential for the European Union (EU) to provide direct funding to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) budget amid Israeli occupation's financial restraints.
The Egyptian minister made the remarks while receiving European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi in Brussels on the sidelines of an EU meeting, Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ahmad Abu Zeid said in a press statement.
Shukry also called on the EU to financially support the UN refugee agency, UNRWA in a bid to enable its staff to do their indispensable job of supporting the Palestinian people, who have been undergoing dreadful humanitarian circumstances, the spokesman added.
The Egyptian foreign minister underlined that the EU should push the Israeli occupation to halt its policy of starvation against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
He echoed Egypt's call for the Israeli occupation to shoulder its due responsibilities towards civilians in the Palestinian city of Rafah on the basis that is an occupying power pursuant to international law.
On his part, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi vowed that the EU would keep seeking to contain the crisis in the Palestinian territory and to press for bringing relief aid into Gaza.
Varhelyi also reiterated the European bloc's support for the two-state approach, which is mainly based on the Palestinian people's right to a viable independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borderline. (end)
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