TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský, on Tuesday (10 October), became the first European politician to pay an official visit to the country after the attack launched by Hamas last weekend.
Lipavský went to Tel Aviv directly from Oman, where he had attended a planned meeting between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and an emergency EU foreign ministers meeting on the situation in Israel and Palestine.
His trip to Israel was under a strict embargo until his late-night departure from Tel Aviv to Prague. Lipavský met with his Israeli counterpart Eli Kohen and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog during his visit.
“I travelled to Israel to express Czech support to the country in these difficult times while facing terrible attacks from Hamas terrorists,” Lipavský told reporters, including Euractiv.cz, in Tel Aviv.
“We spoke about other possible steps to do. Minister (Kohen) said that Israel is ahead of a long war and that the situation will not be easy there,” Lipavský said, adding that Prague has offered Israel help and is now awaiting a potential request.
Besides official meetings with Israeli politicians, Lipavský also met with the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped by Hamas forces.
Addressing the issue of EU aid to Palestine, Lipavský said he does not support its suspension.
“Some type of humanitarian aid is appropriate,” Lipavský said. According to him, it is necessary to review current development aid programmes and ensure that all funding flowing from the EU to Palestine is well controlled and not used to support Hamas activities.
Over the past few days, the EU has been facing a rift over plans to halt aid to Palestine in response to Saturday’s attack on Israel by Hamas, with the majority of EU member states on Tuesday (10 October) speaking out against a suspension.
Besides the expression of support, Lipavský’s aim with the trip to Israel was also the repatriation of Czech citizens back to their homeland.
As most commercial flight routes have been cancelled due to the security situation in the country, the Czech Foreign Ministry decided to take more than 30 Czech nationals from Tel Aviv back to Prague.
Dispatching a potential additional repatriation flight is a decision for the Czech government and the foreign ministry. The key factor will be the interest and possibilities of Czechs currently staying in Israel.
“If it were clear that these people had no other way to get out of Israel, the Czech Republic would certainly consider the (repatriation) flight,” Czech Ambassador to Israel, Veronika Kuchyňova Šmigolová, said.
The Czech foreign minister also visited an office of the Czech embassy in Jerusalem.
While the Czech embassy is located in Tel Aviv, two years ago the country opened an additional office in Jerusalem.
With the recent escalation of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, Prague is considering moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
“Personally, I have long supported the move of the Czech Embassy to Jerusalem. I am convinced that this would be a desirable step at present. I will want to discuss the specific course of action in this situation with my coalition partners,” Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS, ECR) stated on Monday (9 October).
However, according to Euractiv.cz sources, moving the embassy would be challenging and risky and does not have consensus.
[Edited by Alexandra Brzozowski/Alice Taylor]
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Source: euractiv.com
