Check against delivery! 

This was the first day of two days of intensive engagement on the Middle East, between the European Union, its Member States – thank you to Norway for calling this meeting - and our Arab friends. Tomorrow, we will continue at the Foreign Affairs Council. 

Everything has been said. Let me only insist on a key idea: the Two-State solution is not a painful concession that Israel is doing. It is not a security threat to Israel. On the contrary, it is the only long-term guarantee for the security and prosperity of Israel. 

I know that the current Israeli government is not convinced of that, and we have to work in order to make this idea go through to the public opinion, in order to push for the only solution that we can imagine, in order to bring peace and security to the two people who are fighting for the same land. 

Tomorrow, we will continue our discussion in the Foreign Affairs Council with our Arab partners, and the Secretary General of the League of Arab States.

In the meantime, we have to urge Israel to end the Rafah operation, as required by the International Court of Justice. This is a compulsory order, and I hope that the international order will survive to this test. Because if this Order of the International Court of Justice is not being fulfilled and implemented, then the whole multilateral system – the multilateral order – will be very much weakened. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-257714 from 3:31”