First steps on the road
It remains unclear whether Bush's personal touch will set the roadmap on the right track. Nevine Khalil and Soha Abdelaty check for speed bumps
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Mubarak consulted with Oman's Qabous; Japan's Koizumi; and Libya's Gaddafi during a hectic week of high diplomacy
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Next week the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh will be agog with a high-profile six-way summit between the United States and Arab leaders. US President George W Bush will be in town next Tuesday to meet with the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Morocco. This will come on the eve of Bush's trip to the Jordanian port city of Aqaba for a summit meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
This is all of course in the hope that Bush's presence and face-to-face diplomacy will jump-start the peace process by breathing life into the roadmap. His trip will come hot on the heels of the G-8 summit in Evian, France, which ends on 3 June.
For all intents and purposes the US appears to be throwing its weight behind the roadmap. President Hosni Mubarak said earlier this week that this time the US administration is "very firm in its commitment to propel the peace process forward".
The US-Arab summit will probe ways of guaranteeing an atmosphere conducive to the implementation of the roadmap. It will also examine how the Arabs can help during the various stages of implementation as well as ensuring that the relevant parties honour their commitments without reservation.
Although Egyptian officials would like to believe that the 5 June summit in Aqaba will guarantee Israeli implementation of the roadmap, diplomatic sources remain sceptical about its viability. They feel the outcome will be little more than a verbal pledge by both sides to move ahead. The real aim of the summit, they said, is to send a message to the American public that the peace process is now back on track, that the US is in control, and all this has only been possible since the fall of Baghdad.
The call for a summit came after Washington's announcement, on Friday, that it would "take into consideration" Israel's concerns about the roadmap. Although the Israeli cabinet gave its conditional approval of the roadmap on Sunday, Egyptian officials said Israel's decision was a positive step that awaited implementation on the ground. Mubarak feels that the US is "exerting a lot of effort, and thus Israel, and the Palestinians as well, should firmly assist in the process". Any "sensitivities" or reservations about the roadmap, Mubarak added, could be dealt with during negotiations.
Earlier this week, Sharm El-Sheikh was rumoured to be an alternative venue for Bush's meeting with Abu Mazen and Sharon, but many officials said they feared the Egyptian public would not accept the idea of Sharon visiting the country. The Israelis, it seems, do not want to come to Egypt immediately either; a high-ranking Israeli official told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Monday that "Sharon will certainly not go to Egypt considering this country's hostile position regarding Israel." Other analysts viewed Jordan's hosting of the summit as indicative of a US desire to grant Amman a more assertive role in the peace process.
Sources pointed out that unless there are certain guarantees -- namely a cease-fire agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis -- the summit would not take place. Abu Mazen and Sharon should meet tête-à-tête within a few days, as soon as they commit themselves to a date and place and stop putting off a second meeting. Without solid assurance that the leaders of the Palestinians and Israelis are committed to peace, Bush would be risking a personal setback in his campaign to win the 2004 presidential elections.
Meanwhile, in the Arab camp, a flurry of contacts were underway this week to "push forward the peace process and overcome the current bottleneck", according to Mubarak. He consulted with several Arab leaders this week: he met with Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi in Tripoli on Sunday; sat with Oman's Sultan Qabous in Sharm El-Sheikh on Saturday; and spoke by telephone with participants of next Tuesday's summit Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, Morocco's King Mohamed, Jordan's King Abdullah and Bahrain's King Hamad Bin Eissa Al-Khalifa -- who currently heads the Arab summit. All these discussions focussed on both the prospects for progress on the roadmap plan, as well as the ways and means of establishing a solid Arab position to promote stability and security in the region.
The Europeans also support this latest effort to crank the roadmap into higher gear. The EU's Policy and Security Chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday that European countries will work to assist in the implementation of the proposal which was drafted in agreement with the diplomatic quartet -- the US, EU, Russia and UN. Damascus also indicated that it would like to be on board this dash to achieve peace in the region. Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara', attending the Euro-Mediterranean biannual ministerial conference on the Greek island of Crete, suggested on Tuesday that the roadmap be expanded to include not only the Palestinian, but also the Syrian and Lebanese tracks.
At the Crete meeting, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher tested the waters with his Israeli counterpart Silvan Shalom on Monday, to see whether there is a real potential for peace this time round. But Maher told reporters later that he had discerned no change in the Israeli position regarding serious commitment to the roadmap; Israel continues to expect the Palestinian side to begin implementing its obligations before Israel looks into its own. "There are doubts over Israeli intentions [to implement the roadmap]," Maher said, asserting that the roadmap's success depends on Tel Aviv.
"Israel has to assist the Palestinian government in achieving stability and security for its people, and providing the suitable atmosphere in which progress can be achieved," he said. Israel could begin by stopping its efforts to sabotage the relationship between Abu Mazen and Arafat, and, according to Maher, ending its "provocations" -- things like settlement building, destroying homes and targeted assassinations. "If Israel really wants peace, this has to be reflected on the ground." he said.
On Monday, Maher also met with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, who briefed the top Egyptian diplomat on his recent visit to the West Bank and Israel. De Villepin said that Sharon's refusal to meet with him because he had met Arafat will only "isolate Israel". Maher told his European counterparts at the Crete conference that he expects Europe to play an influential role in the implementation of the roadmap. Europe should not "leave the entire task of enforcing implementation to the US", he urged.
Other global players are also taking steps to help the process along. Mubarak received Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Cairo on Saturday to talk about the latest developments in the region. During a joint news conference with Koizumi on Saturday, Mubarak said that Japan could play a major role in "the crucial issue" of the region's economic development. For his part, Koizumi believes that there is a "golden opportunity" to push the peace process forward in light of the changes taking place in the region, as well as the potential for a successful roadmap. "With the help of Arab countries, Japan will do its best to achieve this," he said. Japan's good offices have been used to help in confidence-building measures between the parties, as witnessed in the talks earlier this month between the Palestinians and Israelis in Tokyo.
Cairo and Tokyo also committed themselves to a joint effort to provide humanitarian aid to Iraqis and help in the country's reconstruction. Koizumi asserted that Japan wants to see the Iraq issue "resolved quickly and properly".
Additional reporting by Inas Nour in Crete
