Challenging uncertainties and injustice
Dina Ezzat listens to a poetic, but pragmatic proposal for peace and stability in the Middle East by French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is perhaps more popular in the Middle East than any other French foreign minister. During the past few weeks, his show of uncompromising but eloquent opposition to the US military aggression against Iraq, turned him into one of the stars of the war in Iraq show, which people throughout the Middle East have been following closely.
It was no surprise, then, to see a spacious ball-room in a Cairo hotel overflowing with people this Saturday who had come to listen to and applaud the poetic French foreign minister as he spoke about peace-making and development in the Middle East during this "period of troubles and uncertainty".
"I have seen my feet change/ To a river brimming with blood," de Villepin quoted the Lebanese poet Adonis, by way of referring to the gloom and despair in the Middle East.
At the gathering, which was organised by the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, de Villepin passionately stressed the need for the peoples of the Middle East to work to end their suffering. "Today, I address the men and women of this region. With you I should like to chart the road to freedom, explore the avenues of modernity and plumb this identity that is the source of so much pain, as well as the cradle of so much promise," de Villepin said. For this to happen, he insisted, there is "a difficult path to be trodden", requiring "a ceaseless effort for reconciliation, tolerance, education and togetherness".
The top French diplomat argued, "The Middle East is once again facing the ordeal of war, with its attendant privations, casualties, and feelings of injustice in a region already heavily marked by suffering."
France, according to its foreign minister, deemed it urgent that at a time when "the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction [is a] threat to the planet, we should build a peaceful world together in which everyone has his rightful place and every culture is respected."
To achieve peace and stability in and around the Middle East, de Villepin advocated a five-phase plan to be implemented immediately. This would involve settling the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, committing to settle the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, launching a concerted and legitimate initiative to foster stability and democracy in Iraq and forging better Arab-European rapport based on partnership in the true sense of the word.
To end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, de Villepin argued, "there has never been such unanimous agreement concerning the broad lines of a settlement". Those would be based on Security Council resolutions 242, 338, 1397, the collective ideas of the international Quartet, the Arab League peace initiative adopted in March 2002, and recognition of equal right of both Palestinians and Israelis to live free of the shadows of the Nakba and Nazi abominations.
It was on these legal and moral bases that de Villepin proposed a five-phase plan to move towards a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
For the first phase, the French foreign minister stressed the need to "rapidly" implement the Quartet's roadmap. He posited halting "the spiral of violence" and ensuring "the conditions for peace" as steps two and three. "Israelis and Palestinians must publicly reassert their choice for negotiations and peace... Palestinian public servants should be in a position to assume their responsibilities."
For step number four, de Villepin suggested "an international conference to define the framework needed for concluding an "honourable peace" with the support of the international community.
Then, under step five, according to the de Villepin recipe, comes the "proclamation of the Palestinian State".
To turn over a new page towards the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict, once and for all, de Villepin argued, "peace must be comprehensive", meaning that the issues pertaining to Syria and Lebanon will have to be handled. "Is the Israeli presence in the Golan Heights still justified for security reasons? The matter of water and the Sea of Galilee should be the subject of fair agreement consonant with the practices recognised under international law in this field. Lebanon, for its part, will recover its full independence and complete sovereignty within the framework of a comprehensive peace."
Approaching the Iraqi file, de Villepin referred to the "massive upheavals" it is experiencing, which pose "a great challenge for this country, for the Arab world and for the international community".
"We all know what Baghdad represents in the history and imagination of the Arab world," he said referring to its roles as capital of Mesopotamia, the Abbasid Empire and the centre of Arab science and letters for centuries.
Calling Iraq "the country of Harun Al-Rashid, where Callimachus first experienced the wonder of seeing the hanging gardens of Babylon", de Villepin insisted that the only way out of the current state of chaos for the Gulf country was a future built on both international and national legitimacy.
Addressing the devastating humanitarian crisis in Iraq is a primary concern, the French foreign minister said. However, he added three other priorities.
The first is to "set up sovereign, independent and stable national institutions, respectful of human rights and exclusively concerned with the situation of all Iraqis" as soon as possible.
Determining the terms for "a peaceful cohabitation of the entire population" and assisting "the Iraqi authorities in quickly improving the entire population's economic situation" were suggested by the French foreign minister as the second and third priorities.
Enhancing stability throughout the Middle East, is in the interests of neighbouring Europe, the top French diplomat argued. "Our cultures are today inseparable from one another... There are ample reasons here for building new bridges and increasing the number of passageways between Europe and the Middle East... Our future depends on our ability to live and develop together."
To this end, Villepin suggested an acceleration of the Euro-Mediterranean process that was launched in Barcelona in 1995.
Settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, helping Iraq out of its current crisis, and building a healthy partnership between Europe and the Middle East were some of the other ideas that de Villepin shared with his audience of top officials, including Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, intellectuals, students and even just ordinary admirers.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 17 - 23 April 2003 (Issue No. 634)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/re2.htm