Although it seems that the proposed ceasefire agreement in the Gaza conflict will be unsuccessful, the countries of the Visegrád Group continue to push for a negotiated solution, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Political Director Szabolcs Takács stated on Tuesday.
Mr. Takács pointed out that the political directors of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Visegrád Four countries (V4: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic) had spoken with Director General and Minister of State for Public Administration of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Nissim Ben-Sheetrit in Visegrád on Tuesday. Originally scheduled for April as part of the Hungarian V4 presidency, which ended in June, the meeting was delayed because of a strike by Israeli diplomats, he added.
According to Mr. Takács, the significance of the consultation was provided by the fact that dialogue between the V4’s political directors and various countries had become particularly intensive in recent years, and cooperation between the Visegrád countries on foreign policy is becoming increasingly striking. The world “is taking more notice of us”, he stated.
In the Political Director’s opinion, Israel is a very important partner to all four countries. Mr. Takács stressed that the significance of the meeting was added to by the recent escalation of the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, which made necessary negotiations between the Visegrád countries and Israel on how Israel views the situation and what solutions it sees as possible to achieve a return to the negotiating table and a peaceful solution, and furthermore about how the V4 can contribute to this process within EU forums, for instance.
They were somewhat more optimistic during the morning, as it seemed that Egypt might successfully broker a ceasefire agreement, he said, but by the early afternoon it transpired that the ceasefire would be short-lived: rocket attacks aimed at Israel continued and the Israeli army had received orders to react appropriately.
According to Mr Takács, the members of the V4 only regard a negotiated solution to the conflict as being acceptable. He also said that the participants of the meeting had touched on other crisis areas in the region and had also taken a stand in support of a negotiated solution with regard to these issues, as with regard to the crisis in Ukraine. The diplomat stated that with reference to the situation in Iraq it is important to maintain the country’s territorial integrity, in addition to which the standpoints of every ethnic community and moderate political force that make up the country must prevail.
With regard to Iran, the countries of the V4 feel that the remaining elements of the nuclear issue must be settled as soon as possible and they expressed their hope that negotiations on the issue would eventually lead to a comprehensive agreement that was acceptable to all parties, Mr. Takács said.