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Friday, 29 March. 2024
 
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The European Union wants to fill in the vacuum in Middle East peace efforts created by the US presidential elections with a new drive to stop the cycle of violence, foreign ministers agreed on Friday, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov kicked off his first regional tour in Egypt to discuss the “roadmap” peace plan after a similar mission by his German counterpart Joschka Fischer.

The European ministers’ meeting in Valkenburg in the Netherlands, which holds the rotating EU presidency, agreed on Friday that the bloc’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana should try to kick start the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, stalled ahead of the November US vote, Reuters reported.

“Israel realizes very well that because there are elections in the United States and because stalemate might occur, it is of great importance that the EU be involved in the peace process,” Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot told a news conference.

Bot said the most urgent issue to be discussed was Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral plan to evacuate occupation troops and some 8,000 illegal Jewish settlers next year from some 22 colonies in the Gaza Strip inhabited by 1.3 million Palestinians.

“It (Israel) knows very well that if there is not close cooperation between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the European Union, it may face chaos after withdrawal,” he said.

Bot added that Sharon’s plan that has yet to be officially approved could be discussed along with the stalled peace plan known as the “roadmap,” Jewish settlements and the Apartheid Wall Israel is building in the occupied West Bank, which grabs Palestinian land.

He also said that EU leaders broadly “oppose recent steps by Israel to resume construction in certain settlements on the West Bank.” The US has failed to clearly condemn the Israeli plans for settlement expansion.

EU foreign policy chief Solana urged Washington to put pressure on Israel to end all further settlement activity in the West Bank.

“We are very concerned today with the questions of settlements in the West Bank. We think it's contrary to the ‘roadmap’” peace plan, Solana said.

“We think that at this point, on this particular question, they (Washington) should be tougher,” he told reporters.

EU Delegations to Israel, USA

Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds told reporters the EU would send parallel delegations to Tel Aviv and Washington, which she said would support the EU taking a lead.

“I also think that this is something the United States would not object to, on the contrary, because the current standstill is not a good situation seen from a U.S. perspective,” she said.

Freivalds said the EU should help support upcoming Palestinian elections and consider the potentially severe economic consequences for Gaza of the planned withdrawal.

President Yaser Arafat was scheduled to launch on Saturday, September 4, the registration process of Palestinian voters at a signing up center in his besieged headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Spain Pleased

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said he was pleased the EU ministers had agreed to a concrete plan for the Middle East, saying it marked a new resoluteness after what he described as a frustrating unwillingness to act in the past.

“It is a clear expression of the will of the 25 countries to not keep their arms crossed but to involve themselves more directly in seeking an exit from this crisis which disgracefully doesn't seem to have an end,” he told reporters.

Moratinos said the EU should do more in the Middle East to revive the so-called “roadmap” towards peace.

“We have to implement the roadmap,” he said. “There are some ideas that Solana will present to us and we have to combine these ideas with other ideas to make a strong role for the European Union.”

The United Nations Security Council in November adopted resolution 1515 endorsing the “roadmap,” which was drafted by the Quartet of the United States, the EU, the United Nations and Russia.

Russian FM Seeks Revival of ‘Roadmap’

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began on Friday his first tour of the Middle East in Egypt to discuss, among other topics, the “roadmap” with the regional leaders.

Lavrov’s tour will last till September 7. The Russian foreign minister will also be holding talks with the leaders of Lebanon, Israel and Syria on a variety of issues, including bilateral cooperation.

Russia wants a comprehensive Arab-Israeli settlement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko has said on the eve of the visit.

He described Lavrov’s trip as “a good chance to work for the revival of the roadmap plan.”

“It will be still more crucial in connection with the Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon’s idea of unilateral separation policy,” Yakovenko said.

“Russia cannot but support the intention of the Israeli leadership to begin the withdrawal from Palestinian territories, however, it must be adjusted to the implementation of the international plan. Resumption of the negotiating process would help resolve all issues of concern to Israel, Syria, and Lebanon on the basis of international law,” he said.

Lavrov, Fischer Skip Ramallah in Regional Trips

However, the Russian foreign minister had no plans to visit the Occupied Palestinian Territory, following in the footsteps of his German counterpart.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer visited Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Israel and met Ariel Sharon on August 30.

While in Egypt, Fischer called on the Palestinians to cooperate in the implementation of Sharon’s unilateral plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.

Speaking after a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, Fischer added that the European Union was prepared to aid in the implementation of Sharon’s Gaza plan, but that this depended heavily on the two parties.

Fischer, who met with Israeli officials on Monday, said he had told them that a withdrawal only from Gaza was not enough, but should be a first step toward implementation of the “roadmap.”

Quartet Accepted All PNA, Egyptian Conditions: Shaath

Fischer’s comments came as Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei, also in Egypt for talks with Mubarak, said that the Palestine National Authority (PNA) would not accept a withdrawal from the Gaza Strip “to the detriment of the West Bank” and insisted on linking the two territories under the peace “roadmap.”

Any Israeli pullout from Gaza must be “concomitant with similar moves in the West Bank and put an end to the Israeli occupation,” Qurei told reporters.

Palestinian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Shaath, who was with Qurei in Alexandria, said that the PNA and Egypt have presented their conditions to deal with Sharon’s “intended” withdrawal to the representatives of the Quartet Committee.

Shaath said that the Palestinian side and Egypt demanded Israel completely pull out from the Gaza Strip, evacuate all the illegal settlers’ posts and settlements, and allow the Palestinians to move freely and to operate the airport and the seaport.

Shaath added that the committee has accepted all the presented conditions.

Earlier, PNA negotiations minister Saeb Erakat told AFP that: “The Palestinian Authority is ready to assume its responsibilities in any territories that Israel retreats from in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip.”

However Erakat insisted that, “any eventual withdrawal forms part of the roadmap and is not a substitute for it.”

Israeli Assassination Threats Slammed

Arafat’s media adviser Nabil Abu Rudeinah was more skeptical and accused Sharon of “wasting time.”

“Sharon is time-wasting and laying down obstacles in a bid to win time and that is only going to aggravate the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he told AFP.

Referring to Sharon’s threats against Syria Abu Rudeinah slammed Israel’s statements that it would launch a global war of extra-judicial executions against Palestinian leaders. The Israeli threats came after twin bombings in Beer Alsabe’ that claimed 16 victims on Tuesday.

Speaking to the “Voice of Palestine” radio station on Thursday, Abu Rudeinah called upon the United States to step in to stop Israel’s assassination policy, which he said would push the region into chaos and would undermine international and Arab efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.

Similarly on Friday, Solana criticized the Israeli threats.

“I don’t think it’s helpful to start talking about attacking new countries. The situation in the Middle East is complicated enough,” Solana told reporters on arriving for European foreign ministers’ meeting in the Netherlands.

Solana added he did not believe the United States would support such threats.

For his part, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos urged Israeli restraint. “We will try (to work things out so) that we don’t initiate spillover on the region, he told reporters, adding that, “Syria is an important actor in the region.”

Russian foreign minister also slammed the Israeli threats: “We consider that these threats are beyond logic,” Lavrov told reporters in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh after talks with President Mubarak.

“There is no evidence of a link between the explosions which took place in Israel and Syria," Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah said.

 
 
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