Quarterly Updates for (16 Feb 2013 — 15 May 2013)

During this quarter, the EU expressed concern about ongoing Israeli settlement construction and other occupationrelated policies that had come to dominate public diplomacy with Tel Aviv. Yet, there was still no sign that any serious European move to use sanctions of any sort was imminent. Ashton expressed dismay over specific issues, such as Palestinian prisoner conditions in the context of the long-standing hunger strikes (2/16). As in other quarters, some of the strongest criticism came from the EU’s mission in Ramallah, which leaked (2/27) a report revealing that diplomats had urged Brussels to use economic tools to target Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The recommendations included that the EU ‘‘prevent, discourage, and raise awareness’’ of direct investments by European companies in settlements.

Perhaps more seriously from Israel’s point of view, a 4/20 letter to Ashton from 13 of the 27 EU foreign ministers expressed support for the labeling of products from Israeli settlements and asking the EU foreign policy chief to formulate agreed-upon guidelines. Also in 4/2013, the EU missions in Ramallah and Jerusalem expressed (4/27) serious concern over Israel’s demolition of 22 structures across 8 locations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The EU statement noted that some of the destroyed structures had been funded by member states.

The EU continued to make significant contributions to the PA budget this quarter, including a €20.8 million contribution (made 3/17) toward the 2/2013 payment of salaries and pensions for over 80,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (The funding is channeled through the PEGASE mechanism, an instrument to channel EU and international assistance as a contribution to Palestinian state-building.) Ashton and Fayyad also agreed (3/18) to a new $9 million funding commitment aimed at supporting the Palestinian presence in Area C of the West Bank.

On other regional issues, the EU was undecided about how and to what extent to support the Syrian opposition. On 2/18, EU foreign ministers amended the sanctions regime against Syria to allow for the supply of ‘‘nonlethal support and technical assistance for the protection of civilians’’—wording intended to further aid rebels (2/18). In 3/2013, Britain and France made efforts to lift an arms embargo that prevented the arming of Syrian rebels in the interests of correcting (to use the 3/11 words of French FM Laurent Fabius) the ‘‘lack of balance’’ between the 2 sides; the proposal was rejected by an EU summit (3/15).

The EU also remained engaged in diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute, with Ashton taking a leading role in talks in Kazakhstan (4/6) and meeting with Iran’s chief negotiator Saeed Jalili again on 5/15. In 3/2013, EU foreign ministers tightened the sanctions targeting Iran, adding to the list of individuals with a travel ban and asset freeze, and freezing the assets of 1 company or organization (3/11).