BRUSSELS, June 15 (UPI) -- Europe is pushing a Paris peace conference, opposed by Israel and the United States, as an alternative to a U.N.-backed Palestine state declaration.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, has written to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, calling for an urgent meeting of their Middle East Quartet, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reports.