Arab states, EU agree on need for 2-state solution

Arab states and the EU agreed at a meeting in Spain on Monday that a two-state solution was the answer to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell saying the Palestinian Authority should rule Gaza. Borrell said all EU members attending the meeting had agreed on the need for a two-state solution. The Palestinian Authority must hold elections and improve its functioning but is the only "viable solution" to the future leadership of Gaza, currently run by Hamas Islamists, to avoid a "power vacuum", he said.

Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki said the Palestinian Authority, which lost control of the Gaza Strip in a 2007 power struggle with Hamas, had no need to return to Gaza, saying: "We have been there all the time, we have 60,000 public workers there."