14 - 20 June 2001
Issue No.538
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 June 2001 Issue No.538 |
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All hands on the peace process
As the US signalled a change in its hands-off policy in Middle East peace-making, Europe is also intensifying its role. Tarek Atia and Nevine Khalil report
Cairo has been encouraging more active American and European roles in settling the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict for some time now. This week the US, in the form of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director George Tenet and Middle East envoy William Burns, was heavily involved. On 6 June, Tenet began his first trip to the region since George W Bush took office by meeting President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. After sitting in on meetings between Palestinians and Israelis to lay the groundwork for tight security arrangements, Tenet returned to Cairo on Saturday for additional consultations with Mubarak.
President Mubarak and CIA chief Tenet discuss the US proposal for an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire
"They have not reached an agreement yet," Mubarak said on Tuesday. "We hope they do that soon."
At the same time, the Europeans stepped up their own efforts. "We are much more engaged, more active and much more committed," said European Union special envoy Miguel Moratinos after talks on Monday with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. In Moratinos's own words, it was a "critical week", with "lots of movement." According to diplomatic sources, Moratinos told Egypt that Yasser Arafat was in favour of the presence of European envoys at friction points in Palestine. Israel, however, is unhappy with the observers' presence, as it considers them a muted version of the international observer force they have consistently and vehemently rejected.
Another sticking point in the off-and-on security and political talks between Israelis and Palestinians is the interpretation of the Mitchell report's stand on a freeze of Israeli settlement building. The dispute is over the timing: would a settlement freeze occur later, as a confidence-building stage, or immediately, as part of the package deal on which the Palestinians insist?
Moratinos told Al-Ahram Weekly: "I think the importance of the settlement issue is very well reflected in the Mitchell report, and we need a full freeze of settlement activities. And that, I think, is the only way to create confidence between the parties and to go forward for political discussions and negotiations. So I think that is absolutely an element that has to be included in any package."
It seems that the Europeans are finessing their way around such sticky points as the timing of the settlement freeze. The wording of the Mitchell report allows the Israeli media to interpret it as supporting the Israeli view that the freeze will come later. But it also permits Egypt to believe that it supports the idea of an overall package.
Foreign Minister Maher re-affirmed Egypt's alignment with the Palestinian interpretation of the Mitchell report as a simultaneous package. Speaking to reporters, Maher said: "The Egyptian-Jordanian initiative served its purpose. It wakened a sleeping situation. And then the Mitchell report arrived."
Maher indicated that work on the security and political tracks is taking place simultaneously, which "goes along with our point of view, that you cannot separate the two. It is like walking: it is true you do it one step at a time, but you need both legs if you want to keep moving."
For all concerned parties, the priority now is maintaining the cease-fire and ending the Israeli siege of Palestinian territories. For Cairo, it is important that Europe has always espoused a strong stance against the settlements and that, in the current crisis, Europe agrees that there needs to be a complete package.
"I think everybody has witnessed the latest developments of European involvement," Moratinos said. "Everybody understands that Europe cannot now avoid being out of any action that could bring about a reconciliation of the parties."
In addition to the US and the Europeans, there are the Russians. Moscow's special envoy to the Middle East Andrey Vdovin, also on a tour of the region, called on Mubarak on Tuesday and committed his country to playing an "active" role in the peace process -- "in coordination" with the Americans, Europe and the United Nations. Vdovin, who visited the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Israel before arriving in Egypt, said that Mubarak "encouraged very much" a peace-making role for Russia, the co-sponsor of the peace process. "The situation is very tense, which is why all efforts should be consolidated to overcome this crisis," Vdovin noted.
While Moscow has not formulated any proposals to put the peace process back on track, Vdovin voiced Russian backing for the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative and the guidelines of the Mitchell report. "There are plenty of proposals, but what we need is to unite behind this one," said Vdovin. "We believe the initiative and the report form the basis to move on from security issues to political discussions, and eventually negotiations."
Russia has increased its efforts to help end the clashes between Palestinians and Israelis. Former Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov recently visited Middle East capitals and Moscow has, in the past several weeks, hosted Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Syrian Defence Minister Mustafa Tlass. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will soon visit Moscow, where discussions will focus on the Mitchell report, according to Vdovin.
The Russian envoy added that the situation in the Middle East will be "one of the main items" on the agenda at Sunday's summit between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Slovenia.
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