EU to limit contact with Honduras, Sweden say
BRUSSELS (AFP) - Sweden, the European Union's presidency, will limit contacts with the interim government in Honduras and was considering further measures against it.
| Related news: • Sweden: EU withdraws Honduras ambassadors |
"Until a peaceful negotiated solution has been found, the EU will continue to restrict contacts at political level with representatives of the de-facto government," Sweden, current EU presidency holder, said in a statement.
"The EU will also consider further targeted measures," it said, a day after the 27-nation bloc suspended 65.5 milllion euros in aid to Honduras's institutions, although not humanitarian aid.
Despite growing international pressure, Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheletti has remained defiant, vowing that ousted president Manuel Zelaya -- whom he said "broke the constitution not once but several times" -- could not return.
Zelaya was ousted in a military-backed coup on June 28. His supporters have vowed to continue their protests, while the deposed leader insisted he would return to Honduras, with or without an agreement to pave the way.
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace laureate Arias, has been acting as crisis mediator and has warned that Honduras is on the brink of civil war.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt underlined that the mediation of Arias was the only option at the moment.
"We have to support him," Bildt told members of the European parliament in Brussels. "All other alternatives are pretty bad."
He said the EU had been working with Arias and the Organisation of American States to better tailor its approach so that common messages were being heard in the impoverished Central American nation.
"We can just hope and pray that they will succeed," Bildt said.
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