European Union foreign ministers agreed today that Jerusalem should be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state.

According to a statement released after talks in Brussels, EU foreign ministers agreed that "Jerusalem should provide the future capital of the two states as part of a negotiated settlement".

An earlier draft proposed by Sweden that explicitly supported east Jerusalem as capital of a Palestinian state was dropped after opposition from the foreign ministers. Remarkably enough, the text finally agreed by the EUs foreign ministers was welcomed by both Israel and the Palestinians.
 

The issue is extremely sensitive in Israel, which views Jerusalem as its undivided capital. A statement from the Israeli foreign ministry said, "in view of the extreme draft submitted by the Swedish presidency at the start of the talks, we can only welcome the fact that at the end of the process, the voice of the responsible and balanced states prevailed and helped balance and improve the text".
 

A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas also welcomed the text: "this is a positive step even though we hoped for something stronger and clearer".
 

However, the EU initiative was not welcomed by some lawmakers in the United States; the senior Republican sitting on the House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee, Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, said "EU members should join responsible nations in opposing any plan to recognize east Jerusalem as capital of a future Palestinian state".