Malta has again offered to mediate between Israel and Palestine and serve as a “bridge builder” to help the two restart a peace process which has stalled.

“We are available to both Israel and Palestine to do whatever it takes”, Foreign Minister Carmelo Abela told a joint press conference at the end of bilateral talks with his Palestinian counterpart, Riad Malki in Valletta.

Dr Abela noted that Malta enjoyed excellent relations with both Israelis and Palestinians and said that the country would continue to support conditions “conducive to a political horizon” for a resolution to the ongoing conflict.

Late last year, Dr Abela had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Malta would not take sides in the conflict and wanted mutual recognition and peace between the two.

A few weeks later, he told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that Malta was willing and able to serve as a “bridge-builder” between the two sides.

If we can do our bit to convince both parties, all those concerned, to go back to the negotiating table, we will try to do it to the best of our ability,” he had said during his trip to the West Bank.

Minister Abela and his counterpark Mr Malki discussed a variety of other issues during the latter’s visit to Malta, with Dr Abela pledging to up Malta’s contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and also highlighting the importance of granting scholarships to Palestinian students to study in Malta.

Photo: DOI/Clifton Fenech