Picqui calls for intensifying international efforts to halt deterioration in the ME

The Spanish foreign minister Jose Picqui has called for intensifying the international efforts to halt the deterioration in the Middle East as a result of the Israeli practices in the Palestinian territories, stressing that the solution in the region requires an American commitment.

Picqui whose country currently presides over the rotating presidency of the European Union stressed in a meeting with the London- based al-Hayat daily issued on Sunday that the demolishing of Gaza airport by Israeli tanks and bulldozers is an act that can not be justified under declaring the fighting of terrorism.

The Spanish minister said that changes of conditions in the Middle East do not raise optimism, noting that he will today start a tour into the Middle East to revive the peace process and bring back the Palestinian and Israeli sides once again into the peace process, according to the Madrid conference launched in 1991.