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EU Council, EU parliament presidents welcome Palestinian Premier in Brussels

January 16, 2025 at 8:07 pm

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa (L) meets with European Council President Antonio Costa (R) in Brussels, Belgium on January 16, 2025 [Dursun Aydemir – Anadolu Agency]

The presidents of the EU Council and the EU parliament welcomed the Palestinian Prime Minister in Brussels on Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I was very pleased to meet Mohammad Mustafa, the Prime Minister of Palestine, in such an important and decisive moment for the Palestinian people,” EU Council chief, Antonio Costa, wrote on X.

“The ceasefire and hostage release deal now sealed should allow for the safe, rapid and unimpeded access for humanitarian relief, and create the conditions for beginning Gaza’s recovery and reconstruction,” he said following the ceasefire announced Wednesday.

Costa stressed that the European bloc “remains committed to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the two-State solution,” and vowed continuous “humanitarian aid” and support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) and the Palestinian Authority.

EU Parliament President, Roberta Metsola, also wrote that she had “good talks” with Mustafa “in the immediate hours after a deal was sealed for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of hostages.”

Ensuring the implementation of the ceasefire, and “stopping the conflict, getting aid in, getting hostages back to their families” should be the immediate priority, Metsola added.

The ceasefire “must become the stepping stone to lasting stability, peace, re-building and getting services back up and running,” she added.

Qatar announced Wednesday a ceasefire deal to end more than 15 months of deadly Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, where nearly 46,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed and over 110,000 injured since Oct. 7, 2023.

The three-phase deal, set to take effect Sunday, includes a prisoner exchange and sustained calm, aiming for a permanent truce and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

The Israeli onslaught has left more than 11,000 people missing, with widespread destruction and a humanitarian crisis that has claimed the lives of many elderly people and children in one of the worst global humanitarian disasters ever.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

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