19 - 25 April 2001
Issue No.530
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 April 2001 Issue No.530 |
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Playing favourites
As Egypt enters the debate on international intervention, top Western diplomats tiptoe around the issue of peace-keeping forces in Palestine. Dina Ezzat finds lopsided logic among intervention advocates
Arab ambassadors at the UN headquarters in New York are having a tough time lobbying Security Council members to set up an international peace-keeping force that will provide protection against Israeli military aggression for Palestinian civilians. While many Arab leaders have been pushing for UN intervention, Arab diplomatic sources say they are convinced that the Security Council will maintain its "line of apathy" on this issue.
"Late last March the US vetoed a resolution to send international peace-keepers to the borders between Israel and the Palestinian territories," commented one Egyptian diplomat. "The European members of the Security Council abstained. I have no reason to believe that anything will change now." He added that it has become clear that Arab countries will have to go through the UN General Assembly to pass such a resolution, but the recommendation would still not be binding.
The moves to establish a peace-keeping mission in the occupied territories stand out against a background of international debate over whether intervention in humanitarian crises is the right of the international community or an infringement on state sovereignty. Senior diplomatic figures and international organisations are increasingly engaged in a heated debate over the right to intervene, with the Third World often dissenting on the grounds that intervention policies are inherently US-dominated and tilted towards the agenda of Western countries.
Gareth Evans, co-chair of the Canadian-funded International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), was in Cairo last week to promote the commission's programme for intervention in cases where civilians are insufficiently protected by their own governments. Founded in September 2000, the ICISS is an independent organisation that brings together political specialists from the North and South. Co-chaired by Evans and prominent Algerian politician Mohamed Sahnoun, special adviser to the UN secretary-general, the organisation's advisory board is made up of eminent international diplomats, among them Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.
In Cairo, Evans met with a number of senior Egyptian officials, including Moussa and representatives of regional think-tanks. He also delivered a lecture before the Egyptian Council on Foreign Affairs, where he argued that the rules of intervention could be agreed on in a way that will accommodate developed countries -- the "big guys", as he called them -- and still address the concerns of developing countries, who worry that ultimately, the Third World will be used to further the agenda of the First World.
Not denying that local governments could be overruled, Evans said, "The concept of sovereignty is not unchallenged in cases of threats to international peace and security." But with regard to Palestinians living in the occupied territories, Evans backpedalled on the need for humanitarian intervention and the right to protection provided by the international community. Speaking to reporters following his meeting with Moussa, the former Australian foreign minister offered no argument justifying his claim that the right to intervene does not apply in the case of clashes in the Middle East.
While admitting that the situation in the occupied territories is "deeply troubling," Evans sidestepped questions about why the ICISS was not for intervention in Palestine by asserting that the crisis remains "a case for diplomacy." "The situation is not one of military intervention, but one that needs to be dealt with through a political process that involves give-and-take on both sides," he said.
It was clear that Evans did not find this argument contradictory to the idea of "non-selectivity" promoted by the ICISS, nor did he seem concerned that his stance might not mesh with previous statements about the need to "bring prevention [of conflict] in the heart of intervention".
Evans is not alone in what seems to be a deliberate exclusion of the Palestinian people from the right to protection when addressing the issue of intervention. A recent talk by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York promoted a "sense of neighbourhood" as essential to furthering world peace and security. "If governments do not want to help" their neighbours in cases of serious human rights infractions, "then, there is little that the UN can do," Annan said. In his remarks, Annan referred to the need for "strong political support" to be offered by countries with influence, but Annan himself is not a strong advocate of deploying peace-keeping forces on the borders between Israel and the Palestinian Territories without the approval of the Israeli government.
The right to intervene in internal and regional conflicts has been subject to debate since NATO decided to carry out military attacks in the Serbian province of Kosovo without the approval of the UN Security Council. In September 1999 Annan argued that there is a real need to resort to intervention in cases of extreme conflict, and the subject was perhaps one of the most frequently addressed issues during the UN millennium summit last September. Many Third World countries have opposed the idea, fearing that it provides the perfect pretext for widespread US presence in places of strategic interest to Washington. Egypt demanded that the issue be debated thoroughly on the international level before a decision is reached. In any event, Moussa said, the role of the Security Council as the key international body in charge of world peace and security will have to be preserved.
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