'Cautiously optimistic'
The new EU envoy to the region told Dina Ezzat he will work to maintain the window of opportunity for peace in the Middle East
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Palestinians cross a checkpoint at the Jewish settlement of Gush Katif on their way to the southern Gaza strip town of Khan Younis
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On his first tour to the region, Marc Otté, the newly appointed European Union envoy for the Middle East peace process, emphasised to his interlocutors the need to maintain the momentum for peace generated by the initiation of the roadmap. "There is an awareness that there is a window of opportunity now, but time is of the essence," Otté said, warning that if progress is not made soon, the region could be in store for unpleasant surprises.
Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly in an exclusive interview following his Cairo talks with Egyptian officials and the secretary-general of the Arab League, Otté evinced a realistic understanding of the challenges ahead.
"We have seen some political steps, but the situation is still fragile and the gap [between Palestinians and Israelis] is big." He went on to caution, "There is no other option [but to work for peace]. The [other] option is much worse."
Otté's is an experienced Middle East hand, having been Belgian ambassador to Israel for four years beginning 1988. Ahead of taking up his new post, the seasoned diplomat also conferred extensively with his immediate predecessor in the position of EU envoy, Miguel Moratinos, who over the past few years attempted to act as an intermediary between Israel on the one hand and the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese on the other, with few successes and a number of major disappointments.
"Cautiously optimistic", then, is how Otté describes his outlook. "We are only seeing the beginning. Some painful decisions will have to be made," he added.
In keeping with such an approach, and perhaps owing to his having taken up the envoy position only recently, he limited his responses on some matters, like the wall Israel is building to seal off the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to reiterating stances already announced by the union. "The EU has said that building this fence is not conducive to trust-building measures. The fence is problematic," he said. "We hope we can remove this obstacle, but realistically this does not mean removing the fence itself," he added.
Concerning Israel's declared rejection of an initiative by Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath to extend the truce, Otté said, "We believe that extending the truce will help further in improving the situation," he said.
When asked about his position on the idea suggested by certain European quarters to dispatch peace-keeping forces under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) to the occupied Palestinian territories, he offered, "No such mechanism can work without the agreement of the parties [to the conflict]. Peace-keeping worked in Sinai because Egypt and Israel agreed. It worked in the Golan Heights because, even though they do not have a peace deal, Syria and Israel agreed. Without an agreement, the presence of such forces could become quickly impossible and could do more harm than good," argued the diplomat in light of Israel's firm rejection of the idea.
Asked whether it would be possible for the Quartet to take punitive measures against either the Palestinians or Israelis to honour their roadmap commitments, he responded, "Who will be punished? Who will punish who?" He added, "It is very important that the Quartet remains united," in what seems to be an indirect reference to the widely-held view that the US would not permit Israel to be subjected to any such measures -- even if the other members of the Quartet (the EU, UN and Russia) wanted them.
Meanwhile, Otté seems fully aware that his task entails not only dealing with political decisions, but political leaders as well. So far he has been careful not to anger either the Palestinian or Israeli leadership. After all, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seems to have made it his policy to give the cold shoulder to any European leaders who meet Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, insisting that they should confer with newly-appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, as American delegations have. Otté's predecessor, and other European officials, in particular EU Foreign Policy chief coordinator Javier Solana, have tended to find it difficult to communicate with Sharon, owing to their rapport with Arafat.
Otté is convinced that he will have to follow the EU style book on this issue. "Europeans have made a clear choice about their commitment to democracy and elections. Both men [Arafat and Sharon] are elected by their own peoples," he said. He added that while "Arafat still enjoys credibility and is seen by Palestinians to represent their aspirations, Sharon is also the choice of his people". And, until the ballot box says otherwise, the new EU envoy to the Middle East will have to be content with wishing that "these historic leaders would decide to make the kind of historic decisions that were made by late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who took courageous steps for peace and paid the price for these decisions". He argued, "After all, making tough decisions and [taking] stands willing to pay the price for these decisions is what leadership is all about."
That is not to say that the EU envoy to the Middle East is unaware of the bad blood between Sharon and Arafat, but rather that he hopes that other key regional players "like Egypt and the Arab League", as well as international players, will help the pair "find the right path" to peace.
However, Otté concedes, "sometimes you might wish for other interlocutors." In that respect he is keenly following the emergence of what he calls "fresh blood" in the Palestinian and Israeli political spectrum and he is hoping that this will eventually hasten the march towards peace.
For now, at least, the Brussels-based diplomat believes that all parties to the conflict have the political will -- though in varying degrees -- to continue the progress achieved by the introduction of the roadmap.
Since then, he argues, the Palestinians and Israelis have taken steps towards enhancing each other's security. Both sides, he stresses, are justified in asserting that they have certain security entitlements. While the Israelis should be spared "terrorist attacks", the Palestinians are justified in their desire to have "a normal life that is free of occupation. It is steps, in terms of measures and rhetoric, leading in this direction that each side has to make today". But with characteristic realism, the EU envoy does not expect progress to be easy. "We have to be aware that there is a trauma and that this trauma will not go away easily," he added, emphasising the EU commitment to work not only on the Palestinian track, but on the Syrian and Lebanese ones as well.
Promising that the EU will not waver in its efforts to achieve a just, comprehensive and durable peace, Otté said, "We have no choice. You are our neighbours. We cannot ignore it if you have instability, or it will come to us."
