Livni rejects EU ceasefire calls

2009-01-05 19:02

Jerusalem - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday rejected calls by visiting EU diplomats for an immediate truce to the war in Gaza, saying Israel was aiming to change the "equation in this region".

"We are fighting with terror and we are not reaching an agreement with terror," she said, in reference to the Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza.

"Israel acted in a manner.... to change the equation that Hamas kept before the military operation.... that Hamas targets Israel whenever it likes and Israel shows restraint," she said after talks with senior EU diplomats.

"This is no longer going to be the equation in this region," she said. "When Israel is being targetted, Israel is going to retaliate."

The foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, repeated the bloc's call for an immediate halt to Israel's deadly offensive on Hamas in Gaza.

"We presented the Israeli foreign minister with the view of the European Union that a ceasefire should be established as soon as possible as... that rockets have to stop," Karel Schwarzenberg told reporters in the joint media conference.

"We are not sharing the view that a ceasefire is only possible if all... aims of the Israeli actions are achieved," he said.

"We do think that the ceasefire should be as early as possible."

- AFP