Revived Roman Empire News - the E.U.

[Shammu]

I wonder if this had anything to do with Palestine meeting in Turkey.
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GI holds Israeli-Palestinian leadership seminar in Antalya, Turkey
Date: 10.04.08
Source:

On the weekend of April 10th to 13th, the Palestinian Peace Coalition-Geneva Initiative held a seminar for some 50 Israelis and Palestinians from various influential fields. Among the participants were government workers, ministerial and parliamentary assistants, journalists, local leadership, peace activists, and women's leadership.

Speaking at the seminar were GI signitories Menachem Klein and Saman Khoury, as well as GI Director Generals Gadi Baltiansky and Nidal Foqaha.

The seminar began with an icebreaking session on Thursday evening, in which all participants introduced themselves, their backgrounds, and their hopes for the seminar. The following morning, participants heard welcoming statements by PPC Director General Nidal Foqaha, GI-Israel representative Rubi Alfi-Nissan, and European Commission representative Izzat Ayoub. Next, the Israelis and Palestinians exchanged their personal experiences from the conflict. The session, which began with an Israeli relating his experiences as an IDF commander at the Kalandia checkpoint, soon turned into a heated debate. The Palestinian participants presented their day-to-day hardships, and Israelis presenting their fears and security concerns.

The following session on Friday was a presentation by Mr. Khoury and Dr. Klein on the current political situation. The two reported on the present atmosphere and despair among both publics, detailed the current developments in the negotiations, and discussed the status of international involvement. In response to questions from the audience, Khoury and Klein spoke of the setbacks in previous negotiations that precluded an agreement. The day continued with a role-playing group activity, in which Israelis attempted to present the Palestinian position when entering negotiations and vice versa. Among the issues raised in each group were interior divisions, right of return, Arab-Israeli identity, security, and the future of settlements. The day ended with a presentation by participants from the media on both sides on the role of journalism in the conflict. The participants detailed the difficulties facing them in covering events on the opposite side of the Green Line and the inherent biases in covering the conflict. All agreed that each side receives different information.

On Saturday, the final day of the seminar, Mr. Khoury and Dr. Klein presented participants with information on the two most-sensitive issues of the conflict: refugees and Jerusalem. In their presentations, the two referenced the solutions detailed in the Geneva Accord for the two issues and the questions underlying the issues, such as the conflicting narratives between the two sides. The presentation was followed by a heated discussion that provided a clear example of the great gaps between the narratives of each party. Next, GI Director Generals Gadi Baltiansky and Nidal Foqaha led a discussion on simple ways in which the two parties and the international community can support negotiations and facilitate their success. One of the suggestions brought forth was to look beyond the divisions of the past to a possible solution in the future, on which both sides can agree. Additionally, participants agreed that the gap between developments around the negotiating table and events on the ground was a detriment to the peace process. One participant suggested both sides talk about the ideas presented in the Geneva Accord instead of talking about the past.

The seminar ended with a closing session in which each participant summed up his or her experience and presented conclusions and ideas for the future. Many participants said the experience helped them to better understand the other side, and several people voiced their desire for follow-up activities. One participant, from the right wing of Israeli politics, said that he used to think war was the only solution to the conflict, but now sees a peaceful solution as a possible alternative.

GI holds Israeli-Palestinian leadership seminar in Antalya, Turkey

[Shammu]

German foreign minister favours EU army

08.05.2008 - 17:43 CET
By Honor Mahony

Germany's foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has indicated he would like to see a European army established.

Speaking at a Social Democrat security policy conference in Berlin on Monday (5 May), Mr Steinmeier said he favoured the setting up of a "European armed force" and that he would like to see moves in this direction speeded up.

German daily Tagespiegel reported Mr Steinmeier as referring to the fact that the EU's new treaty, currently undergoing ratification across the European Union, allows for the possibility of a group of member states to "move ahead" in defence policy.

He noted that from Berlin's point of view, France is the key partner for this. Mr Steinmeier said he had already spoken with his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, on concrete steps to improve common areas in the military field.

These include the areas of transport, helicopter capacity and procurement.

The end result of a consolidation of military capacities must be a European army, said Mr Steinmeier, according to German news agency DPA.

At the same conference, other leading politicians from the Social Democratic party - which currently forms part of the governing coalition with the Christian Democrats in Germany - also spoke out in favour of the idea.

Former defence minister and head of the SPD group Peter Struck said: "There will still be opposition to the idea of a European army as there once was against the single currency, the euro.

"But single states are no longer able to handle the threats of today," he continued.

The German politicians' comments appear to be in line with the views of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has in the past made several statements on the need for common European defence.

The French president has more recently not been so vocal on the issue. This is being seen as a deliberate ploy not to upset the EU treaty ratification process, particularly in neutral Ireland - the only country to have a referendum on the charter and where military issues are highly sensitive with the electorate.

An email from a Dublin-based UK official after a briefing by an official in the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs that was leaked to the press last month suggested that one of the reasons for having the treaty referendum before summer rather than in autumn was due to a fear of "unhelpful developments during the French presidency – particularly related to EU defence."

In addition Britain, as the other serious military power in the EU along with France, has also reacted coolly to Mr Sarkozy's push for more integration in EU defence. London has also yet to ratify the EU treaty.

But Mr Sarkozy is expected to return to the issue in the second half of this year, during his stint at the EU helm.

The EU treaty, which has to be ratified by all 27 countries to come into force, allows for a group of member states who are politically willing to go forward to structured cooperation in defence.

German foreign minister favours EU army

[Shammu]

U.S. agrees to EU's Iran nuclear plan
From Elise Labott
Thu May 8, 2008

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has signed off on a European plan that would offer increased incentives for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program, senior State Department officials said Thursday.

Leaders from Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany are expected to join European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana -- the EU's normal contact with Iran -- at a meeting with Iranian officials to present the offer.

That meeting has not been scheduled, the officials said.

The United States, along with the other nations, has been following a "dual track strategy" with Iran, which includes tightening sanctions on the regime while offering incentives if Iran suspends its enrichment activities.

Last week in London, England, the group of nations agreed to sweeten the unspecified offer to Iran if it agreed to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said 6,000 new centrifuges will become operational at Iran's uranium-enrichment plant in Natanz over the coming year, a claim the United States cannot confirm.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But after a meeting last month with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Bush said it is "naive" to think Iran would not be able to transfer nuclear enrichment into a weapons program.

U.S. agrees to EU's Iran nuclear plan

[HisDaughter]

President Bush said it is "naive" to think Iran would not be able to transfer nuclear enrichment into a weapons program.

It's "naive" to think that he is going to use it for anything but...
We are talking about an insanely mad and hateful man.

[Shammu]

Sarkozy seeks warships for European fleet
14 Jun 2008 10:06:01 GMT

Berlin - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Britain to provide an aircraft carrier and Germany to lend frigates and supply ships to establish a European naval fleet, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported Saturday. Sarkozy, who takes over the European Union presidency on July 1, had briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting Monday at Straubing, Germany about the fleet plan, the magazine said in its issue to hit the streets Monday.

Previous efforts to establish European Union defence units have mainly involved land forces.

Carrier groups are the most potent forces on the seas, since they can bombard distant land targets whereas a protected flagship is difficult or impossible to destroy using planes or submarines.

The flagship would be a British aircraft carrier, because France's carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, must dock frequently for repairs. Budget limits mean that Sarkozy cannot decide till 2012 on building a second French aircraft carrier or more nuclear submarines.

Spiegel said he also briefed Merkel on cost-cutting plans to reduce the French armed forces by about 35,000 to 220,000 men and to take the gendarmerie paramilitary police off the defence budget and onto the interior budget.

Sarkozy seeks warships for European fleet

[Shammu]

France, Syria agree to work for peace in Lebanon, Mideast

Sun Jun 15, 10:19 AM ET

PARIS (AFP) - France and Syria agree on the need to strengthen relations and work together for peace in Lebanon and the Middle East, the French presidency said Sunday following talks in Damascus.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's chief diplomatic advisor, Jean-David Levitte, and his chief of staff, Claude Gueant, also delivered a message from the French leader to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, an Elysee statement said.

"The discussions were useful and constructive," said the statement.

The sides discussed bilateral relations, the Middle East, in particular the situation in Lebanon and the Israeli-Syrian peace process, and the Mediterranean Union, it added.

"The two parties agreed on the need to strengthen the Franco-Syrian bilateral relationship, pursue coordination efforts toward a just and comprehensive peace in the region and continue to encourage the Lebanese to apply the Doha accord," said the statement.

The talks came ahead of a planned visit by Assad to Paris to attend July 14 national day celebrations and a summit to launch a new grouping of countries on the Mediterranean rim.

The envoys met Assad and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al Muallem in Damascus.

Sarkozy has moved to restore high-level ties with Syria that were strained over charges of Syrian involvement in the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, a friend of former president Jacques Chirac.

Damascus has denied the claims.

Sarkozy offered to renew relations if Damascus helped defuse the crisis in Lebanon over the election of a new president. Michel Sleiman was elected Lebanese president last month.

Syria was for almost three decades the powerbroker in Lebanon, a longtime focal point of French interest in the Middle East.

On Saturday, France and the United States jointly called on Syria and Lebanon to establish diplomatic ties following talks in Paris between Sarkozy and US President George W. Bush.

The United States initially voiced unease over the Franco-Syrian rapprochement, but US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was confident that France would "communicate the right messages" to Assad.

France, Syria agree to work for peace in Lebanon, Mideast

[HisDaughter]

"Club Med" to include 44 nations

http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/western_europe/27250


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The European Commission has unveiled its proposals to give renewed vitality and visibility to the EU’s relations with its partners in the Mediterranean region.

The new plan is to complete the so-called "Barcelona process" launched in 1995 in order to strengthen the EU’s relations with its southern neighbours but which critics say has so far failed to deliver, mainly because of the lack of Israeli-Palestinian peace but also because of the Mediterranean governments' poor record in using the EU funds on offer.

The downsizing of the original plan came after EU countries with no borders on the Mediterranean, in particular Germany, expressed skepticism at the proposal, with member states from Eastern Europe particularly concerned that it would divert precious EU funds away from their region.

The news proposals focus on raising the profile of relations with 13 Mediterranean rim countries with a regular summit and ministerial meetings, and would see a new forum to be launched at an inaugural summit in Paris on July 13-14 with a raft of projects.

This new forum, called "Barcelona Process: Union for the Mediterranean," will unite 44 countries.

They include the 27 EU states and 13 partners: Albania, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Tunisia, Syria and Turkey -- plus Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro and Monaco.

The forum would be managed by a co-presidency involving one European and one partner nation, but all 27 EU countries will be eligible under the commission's plans, not just those around the Mediterranean as France had hoped.

"This is an initiative to reinforce, to reinvigorate our relationship," External Relations European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

"The more we can develop the region in the South, the less illegal migration there will be…The more prosperity we can give, the less terrorism, the less criminality will be there," she said.
But the association described by the EU falls short of what France -- and in particular French President Nicolas Sarkozy who initiated the ambitious plan of a Mediterreanean Union nicknamed "Club Med"-- had envisioned.

Sarkozy had touted his vision as a potential avenue for peace between Israel and the Palestinians and had hinted it might be offered to Turkey as an alternative to EU membership.

The downsizing of the original plan came after EU countries with no borders on the Mediterranean, in particular Germany, expressed skepticism at the proposal, with member states from Eastern Europe particularly concerned that it would divert precious EU funds away from their region.

Turkey only agreed to participate to the new structure if offered assurances that the Union was not being put forward as an alternative to joining the EU, something the EU Commission explicitly stated. "This project is not directed against Turkey," Ferrero-Waldner said.

"It will take stronger political will, in both sides of the Mediterranean, to seize this opportunity to enhance understanding, peace and prosperity among all our nations, cultures and religions, for the benefit of our citizens," European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, said.

[Shammu]

A French plan for Mediterranean Unity
President Sarkozy's launches his project Sunday of building a 44-state union in the region.
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

July 11, 2008

PARIS - A summit on Sunday to launch French President Nicolas Sarkozy's vision of North African-European harmony, called the "Union of the Mediterranean," promises to be a colorful show: Some 40 leaders from states around a sea that borders three continents will be in Paris to talk about integrating a vast and diverse region better known for clashing and squabbling.

But whether Mr. Sarkozy's grand notion – at first, doing projects in solar energy, disaster relief, water, and agriculture – can find a solid institutional identity and surmount funding hurdles, not to mention German and Spanish pique at initially being left out, is hardly clear.

Still, under the translucent dome of the Grand Palais, France will host elected heads of state, Maghreb autocrats, Arabs and Israelis, Christians and Muslims, Moroccan and Balkan diplomats – in pursuit of a north-south stability that is viewed with a fair share of skepticism by most participants, who feel they need to be there anyway.

It's quite a cast, with a long history of grievance and dispute: Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Syria's Bashar al-Assad will attend along with Israel's Ehud Olmert. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who doesn't want to participate in lieu of Turkish EU membership, finally agreed this week to come. Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, warning of colonial put-downs from Europe and of Israeli normalization of relations with the EU, is the lone holdout. Tellingly, perhaps, there are no plans for a final photograph.

Sarkozy wants the Union to energize the "Barcelona process" – a slightly moribund EU effort to coordinate Europe and North Africa relations ranging from culture and immigration to trade and politics. How the French-led Union will relate to Barcelona, which is controlled by the European Commission, a body that has steadily forced changes to the French plan, is central to its success, experts say.

"We need to see whether the Union can be effective and autonomous, or will simply become an agency attached to the Barcelona process," says Leila Vignal, at St. Anthony's College, Oxford. "There are a lot of hurdles for an idea that was already unrealistic."

Still, the Union offers a number of things that Barcelona doesn't. Rather than a vacuous effort to address disparate "issues," the Union is taking on a concrete set of small actionable projects designed to do a few things well.

Importantly, also, it will operate under a north-south co-presidency. This allows shared decisionmaking and counters fears that former colonial powers, or a purse-waving bureaucracy in Brussels, is trying to control North Africa. Egypt, and at first France, will hold those presidencies. A "secretariat" headquarters will be announced Sunday, with cities from Tunis to Barcelona, Marseilles, and Brussels lobbying for the prize.

"The new union activates the principle of joint ownership, which existed only in theory in the Barcelona process," Egyptian foreign minister Abuld Gheit told reporters in Cairo this week. He added that the co-presidency, "means a country from the north and a country from the south are jointly running the new union. I would like to place the emphasis on the world jointly," he said.

A grand regional grouping born in Paris that may one day offer a modest alternative to the rising economies of Russia and China is just the sort of idea Sarkozy prizes as a way to restore French and European leadership. It comes as France takes over the six-month EU presidency. But its formation has been marked by just the sort of cavalier, Francocentric behavior that irks other EU members, particularly Germany, whose leaders point out that its taxpayers will be financing this as well.

Indeed, Sarkozy's initial vision, articulated in Toulouse when he was still a presidential candidate, was positively interstellar in scale. France would gain good grace in its old sphere of influence and earnestly shape a new world of cooperation and commercial exchange ranging from banking and universities to the environment and trade, common energy, and antiterrorism. It would be a new paradise connecting Paris and the Maghreb.

But the initiative has been scaled way back to make it palatable to everyone involved. Thorny issues like immigration have given way to projects such as a student exchange program, developing solar energy, and cleaning up the Mediterranean, all of which are expected to be discussed on Sunday.

Also, the Sarkozy Mediterranean union initially seemed to have no role for European states not bordering the blue Mediterranean. There was no consultation with Germany, little with the EU or even with Spain, which has profound issues of immigration, hosted the 1995 Barcelona process start-up, and certainly has a coastline.

Yet the constantly evolving plan would use EU funds and require support from the other 26 EU countries. Sources say this caused difficulty for French diplomats as they encountered raised eyebrows and downward pointing thumbs from their counterparts across the continent, especially in Berlin.

In recent months, France and Germany have patched things up, at least in principle. Sarkozy Mediterranean architect and advisor, Henri Guaino, told reporters this week that the Sturm und Drang with Germany was ultimately helpful in focusing attention on the Mediterranean.

"There was a lively debate, a very intense, stormy discussion ... and so what?" Mr. Guaino told the Financial Times. "Was this debate really pointless? Not as pointless as all that, because it led to a Franco-German agreement."

The two main back stories to all this were, first, an appeal by Sarkozy the candidate to limit immigration to France from Africa. He called for more "selective immigration" to be "decided together, organized together, controlled together." Secondly, the union would serve as a halfway house for Turkey, a sop short of membership in the EU, which Sarkozy bluntly and brazenly opposed last year. "Europe cannot spread indefinitely," he said in Toulon.

Turkey, by dint of its size, geographic centrality, and its changing secular and political status, is a state crucial to the union idea. The French have spent a year backing off Sarkozy's blunt statements to block Turkish EU accession, with frequent trips to Ankara designed to delink the question. France now advocates a "special partnership" for Turkey inside the EU, but Erdogan wants a statement in Paris that Turkey is an EU member candidate.

Most Maghreb states have not sought a union-style "regional grouping" in relations to Europe, experts say, but want deep bilateral ties with the EU countries. This could create a problem of political will and may be a challenge in working together. "Israel and the Arabs and Turkey don't expect a lot out of this," says Vignal. "It's a divided place. They've not wanted regional cooperation, but bilateral ties with the EU."

But for many of the North Africa states, the elephant in the room is Israel. The concern of a grouping that deepens Israeli ties to the EU may not be stated publicly as bluntly as Qadaffi has. But it is a constant refrain in the Arab press. Sarkozy, who has Jewish antecedents, is a frequent traveler and open supporter of Israel – a fundamental break with the traditional French leaning toward the Arabs.

Mohamed Sayed Said, editor of Al Badeel newspaper in Cairo, states that the only difference between the Barcelona process and the Union of the Mediterranean is the presence of Israel, which he described as "premature" for most of the Arab states.

"Unless there is a major breakthrough in terms of Palestinian national rights, few of them are going to be very enthusiastic about joining this forum," Mr. Said said, adding that "I think the problem is with Morocco and Algeria. They have a bigger problem with Israeli membership in the Union."

The participants are invited by Sarkozy to stay on July 14 to attend France's annual Bastille Day celebrations, which recalls the French Revolution. One Paris scholar thought it "weird that we'll have a dozen dictators going to that."

A French plan for Mediterranean unity

[Shammu]

"Union of the Mediterranean," promises to be a colorful show: Some 40 leaders from states around a sea that borders three continents will be in Paris to talk about integrating a vast and diverse region better known for clashing and squabbling.

It's quite a cast, with a long history of grievance and dispute: Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Syria's Bashar al-Assad will attend along with Israel's Ehud Olmert. Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who doesn't want to participate in lieu of Turkish EU membership, finally agreed this week to come. Libya's Muammar Qaddafi, warning of colonial put-downs from Europe and of Israeli normalization of relations with the EU, is the lone holdout.

Just by reading this, it is about the size, and countries in the Roman Empire. Least from what I can tell.

[Shammu]

EU and Mediterranean leaders meet this weekend in Paris to launch new union

11/Jul/2008 13:43

PARIS (EJP)---43 Heads of State and Government from the European Union and Mediterranean countries- rich and poor, foes and friends -- will meet on Sunday at the Grand Palais in Paris to launch the new Union for the Mediterranean. 
Initiated last year by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, currently chairman of the Council of the European Union, the new body is aimed at strengthening and deepening the cooperation between both sides of the Mediterranean.
 
The grouping will see the 27 countries from the European Union join states in north Africa and the Middle East, bringing leaders from Israel, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority to the same table.
 
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will make a much-awaited appearance although he has quashed speculation of a historic meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on the sidelines of the summit.

Having acknowledged the widening disparities in the development between each side of the Mediterranean, thereby increasing the risk of instability in the whole region, President Sarkozy initiated the project to promote partnership in the Mediterranean.
 
"Building the Union for the Mediterranean," Sarkozy said in a speech in Tangiers in October 2007, "is not only crucial for the future of Mediterranean rim nations, but for all of humanity."
 
"For it is the Mediterranean region that will determine whether North will clash with South, whether terrorism and fundamentalism will succeed in imposing its brand of violence and intolerance on the rest of the world."
 
"It is where everything will be won or lost."
 
The new union will build on the achievements of the Barcelona Process, inaugurated in 1995 mainly on the initiative of Spain and France, but also intends to considerably develop its aspirations, functioning and its means for action.

The Union for the Mediterranean project is based on three principles: a political mobilization at the highest level through Summits of Heads of State and Government every two years; a governance on an equal footing, in the form of a North-South co-presidency and a permanent secretariat with equal representation; a prioritizing of concrete projects with a regional dimension that create de facto solidarity.
 
Key issues like immigration, the Middle East peace process or fair trade rules will not be tackled.
 
Sunday afternoon’s debates will conclude in the adoption of the first main concrete projects of the Union for the Mediterranean. Among the topics to be discussed are environmental and energy problems, proposals for the de-pollution of the Mediterranean, the development of solar energy and water management, economic and social development challenges.
 
 
Initially, membership to the new union was to be have been extended exclusively to countries of the Mediterranean rim, but under pressure from Germany which feared it could cause a rift within Europe, it was opened up to all EU states.
   
Among its leading critics, Libyan president Moammar Kadhafi, who is boycotting the summit, hile has assailed the club as as a neo-colonialist ploy to weaken Arab and African unity and warned it would be a flop.
 
"This project is doomed to fail. It will fuel terrorist acts from Islamist groups who consider it a new crusade project and will attack Muslim member states," Kadhafi said in Tripoli on Wednesday.
 
Another no-show is Jordan's King Abdullah who is sending a representative while Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to attend despite concerns that the grouping will undermine Turkey's bid to join the European Union.
 
Arab countries have warned the forum should not be a substitute for negotiations with Israel on the terms for normalizing relations.
   
The Mediterranean summit is providing an opportunity for some high-powered bilateral meetings including between Sarkozy and Assad on Saturday, confirming a French shift toward Damascus after Jacques Chirac broke off high-level contacts.
 
Assad is also to meet Lebanese President Michel Sleiman for the first time since his election, and Olmert is to sit down with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to try to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

EU and Mediterranean leaders meet this weekend in Paris to launch new union

[Shammu]

EU proposes strategic partnership with Mexico
16 July 2008

The European Union has proposed establishing a strategic partnership with Mexico to forge closer ties in areas including security, environment, energy and trade.

A plan set out by the European Commission includes the suggestion that the two sides hold summits every two years.

A statement from the European Council and the EU executive said it would represent "a major upgrading in EU-Mexico relations."

"Our relationship with Mexico has been growing and deepening in the last decades and Mexico has become one of our important partners not only in Central and Latin America but also on the global scale," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.

The statement said the partnership would cover areas including human rights, the fight against terrorism and drugs, climate change, food prices, protection of fisheries, trade, development and investment.

The EU has strategic partnerships with China, India, Brazil and South Africa and has begun strategic partnership negotiations with Russia.

The Commission sees Mexico as a cultural and political bridge between North and South America and expects it to play an increasingly influential role in global affairs.

It said the proposal was part of a process of strengthening of bilateral ties started more than a decade ago and which have intensified since 2004.

The EU has been hit by strong criticism in South America recently for passing legislation to deal with illegal migrant workers in the bloc, who include many from South America.

EU proposes strategic partnership with Mexico

[Shammu]

EU should draft its own Middle East 'Road Map'
Jul. 16, 2008
JPost.com Staff
THE JERUSALEM POST

France has urged the European Union to draft a new Middle East 'Road Map' to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stressed that the new plan would not be a replacement for the road map drafted by the Bush administration, but suggested that the EU present an additional plan of its own.

Regarding Syria, Kouchner said it was too early for an agreement between the country and the EU, and that more progress was needed in negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem.

Earlier Tuesday, France announced that it would support the deployment of UN troops in the Shaba Farms region, in the North.

EU should draft its own Middle East 'Road Map'

[Shammu]

EU wants Solana as temporary peace mediator
  By Volker Perthes
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

BERLIN:

Some diplomatic movement has returned to the Middle East. Under American supervision, Israelis and Palestinians have been negotiating again since the end of 2007. Syria and Israel have begun an indirect negotiation process with Turkey as a mediator. In Lebanon, a new government including all relevant political factions has finally been formed.

This would not have been possible without a green light from Syria. And this green light would not have come had Damascus not been convinced that its own negotiations with Israel could, in the medium term at least, lead to a bilateral agreement and also bring about an improvement of Syrian-American relations. Individual European Union states have already honored this constructive about-turn of Syrian policies.

For all those engaged in Middle East diplomacy - this goes for the Arab-Israeli fold as well as for the Iranian nuclear file - the U.S. political calendar is always present: No one expects the current U.S. administration to settle any of the conflicts in the region or to bring any of the ongoing diplomatic processes there to a conclusion during the rest of its term.

This is explicitly so for the Syrian-Israeli negotiations: Syria has already declared that it would not move from indirect to direct talks before the inauguration of a new American administration ready to actively engage with such a process.

Implicitly, however, the same applies to the Annapolis process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. President Bush has repeatedly said that he wants the two sides to reach an agreement while he is still in office.

Israel's outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who lead the talks, are both aware of the contours of a possible, mutually acceptable agreement, and they seem to have come closer with regard to some of the particularly difficult so-called final-status issues.

Nonetheless, even under the most positive scenario, the best one could expect is a further narrowing of the gaps. A comprehensive agreement that would sort out such complex issues as the future of Jerusalem, Palestinian refugees, future borders between Israel and Palestine, or infrastructural links between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, will not be reached within only a couple of months.

And neither Israel's prime minister nor the Palestinian president would today have the authority and the necessary majorities to ratify, let alone to implement a peace agreement.

All this does not speak against the process, only against exaggerated expectations. The process is extremely fragile, and it could easily break down - particularly in the absence of sustained external "care," of guidance and support from a third party both able and prepared to drive the process forward and encourage the negotiating parties to continue their efforts even in the face of domestic opposition.

The current U.S. administration will cease to play its role after the November elections; many of its representatives will by then be looking for new jobs. The new U.S. president will first have to get his senior officials confirmed by Congress, and a foreign policy review, before he begins any major policy initiative. As a result, we should expect a time-out for any active American involvement in the Middle East peace process between the end of this year and at least March or April 2009.

Herein lays Europe's challenge. As an active partner in the so-called Middle East Quartet with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, the EU has helped to bring about the current talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

The EU and several of its member states are contributing to the process through the support of state- and institution-building in the Palestinian territories, particularly in the security and justice sectors.

But beyond that, the EU must now prepare itself to keep the process alive from the end of this year through to next spring. Considering such a task we also have to be aware of the particular structures of the Union.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU, has already announced a more active support for the Middle East peace process. But the French presidency ends in December 2008, and the Czech government, which takes over in January 2009, is unlikely to summon the same energy and resources for the Middle East.

The EU's special representative for the Middle East, the Belgian diplomat Marc Otte, does not have enough political weight to assume a role that so far has been played by the U.S. secretary of state. Individual EU states like France, Germany or Spain would have the resources and diplomatic skills and could even be interested in temporarily guiding the process until a new American administration resumes this function.

In practice, however, jealousy among EU states would make it impossible for any one of them to act for Europe in this or any other important foreign-policy field, unless this country happens to hold the EU presidency. EU states that want to promote a consensual and common European approach would therefore not even try to assume this role; others that might want to take it on would not be able to fill it.

This does not make the EU incapable of acting. The Union, through its Council of Foreign Ministers, should as soon as possible give a mandate to Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU, to make himself available, with the approval of Israel, the Palestinians, and the current U.S. administration, as a temporary mediator for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations from the end of the year.

Solana would not take such an initiative on his own, but he can do so with a mandate from the Council. His staff is familiar with the subject matter and his diplomatic skills are beyond doubt.

Any coalition of willing EU states could support him by delegating some of their own experienced diplomats to his office for the task. Solana and the EU would not be expected to make peace or to bring the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to a conclusion and to dispel any opposition to an agreement. This cannot be done by the EU, simply because, compared to the United States, it has less influence over Israel and cannot give security guarantees to either Israel or the Palestinians.

The EU, however, can act as a temporary trustee for the process, thereby preventing it from breaking down and, given its knowledge of the regional situation, help the parties to find practical solutions for some of the most complicated final-status questions - for example, the political division of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states - only to hand back the process and the role of external guidance to Washington once the new administration there is ready for it.

As an active trustee in this sense, the EU could not only show that it lives up to its own claim of contributing to crisis management through preventive diplomacy, it would also demonstrate to the new U.S. administration how high a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ranges on the European list of priorities, and how useful it can be for the United States to cooperate on this with its trans-Atlantic partners.

EU wants Solana as temporary peace mediator

[Shammu]

Chechen president to inaugurate 'largest mosque in Europe'
Aug. 28, 2008
the media line news agency , THE JERUSALEM POST

The Russian-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov will inaugurate the "largest mosque in Europe" on October 17 in Chechnya, the Russian official news agency Novosty reported.

Over 10,000 worshipers will be able to pray inside the mosque, which will be named after the president's father, Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in 2004.

"The largest mosque in Europe... will by inaugurated on the first day of the International Peacemakers' Conference, titled 'Islam - Religion of Peace and Progress,'" the grand mufti of Chechnya, Sultan Mirzayev, told the press.

Mirzayev underlined that approximately 50 countries have already approved their participation in the three-day conference.

The building of the mosque began more than three years ago. Surrounding the mosque will be Chechnya's Islamic administration, a religious school, an Islamic university, a hotel and a religious library.

Kadyrov, 31, is the son of Ahmad Kadyrov, an anti-Russian rebel leader who at one point was titled "Chechnya's rebel mufti" [mufti - an Islamic, cleric who issues religious decrees].

In 1999 the Kadyrovs defected to the Russian side. On March 2, 2007 then Russian president Vladimir Putin nominated Kadyrov as Chechen president.

Chechen president to inaugurate 'largest mosque in Europe'

[Shammu]

 EU considers sanctions on Russia

EU leaders are considering sanctions "and many other means" against Russia over the Georgia crisis, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said.

But he said he hoped the matter would "be solved by negotiation".

Moscow's military action in Georgia and its recognition of independence for rebel regions has angered the West.

At a key summit, Moscow's Asian allies have not followed suit in recognising independence but Russia's president says he has their "understanding".

Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), President Dmitry Medvedev said the group had a united position that would have "international resonance".

 "I hope it will serve as a serious signal to those who try to turn black into white and justify this aggression," he said in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

However, the BBC's Humphrey Hawksley in Moscow says the summit's statement fell far short of unequivocal support for Russia.

The SCO, which includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, did express backing for Russia's "active role" in resolving the conflict in Georgia by "assisting in peace and co-operation in the region".

But its statement added: "The SCO member states express their deep concern over the recent tensions surrounding the South Ossetia question and call for the sides to peacefully resolve existing problems through dialogue."

Emergency summit

Earlier this month Georgia tried to retake the Russian-backed separatist region of South Ossetia by force after a series of clashes.

Russian forces subsequently launched a counter-attack and the conflict ended with the ejection of Georgian troops from both South Ossetia and Abkhazia and an EU-brokered ceasefire.



France has called an emergency EU summit on Monday to reassess relations with Russia after Moscow's refusal to pull back all its troops from Georgia in line with the truce agreement.

Mr Kouchner said: "Sanctions are being considered, and many other means."

He added: "We are trying to elaborate a strong text that will show our determination not to accept [what is happening in Georgia]."

In a later statement, Mr Kouchner stressed France had made no proposals for sanctions itself but, as current president of the EU, would aim to get consensus among all 27 countries of the bloc if sanctions were envisaged.

Russia's foreign minister described talk of sanctions, which correspondents say Mr Kouchner ruled out earlier this week, as an emotional response that demonstrated Western confusion over the situation.

Sergei Lavrov said such talk was the working of "a sick imagination".

Mr Kouchner later responded by saying: "I'm not sick in the head. The Russians are a bit nervous, that's all."

New Cold War?

Meanwhile, Georgia's foreign minister said the "ethnic cleansing" of Georgians from South Ossetia was nearly complete - but did not specify who was carrying it out.

Addressing the European security organisation, the OSCE, in Vienna, Eka Tkeshelashvili said Georgians had been removed from their homes across the disputed territory.

Earlier, seven of the world's leading industrialised nations - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK - said Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia violated Georgia's integrity and sovereignty.

The group also said it deplored Russia's "excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia".

UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Western countries should re-examine their relations with Russia and warned Russia not to start a new Cold War.

Russia said it was the last country that wanted a new Cold War.

President Medvedev said he was obliged to recognise the independence of the two regions after the "genocide" started by Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili in South Ossetia in August.

However amid the rising tension, Russia has announced it has successfully tested its long-range Topol ballistic missile from a launch site in Kamchatka in the far east of the country.

Russia says the rocket is capable of penetrating the proposed US missile defence shield - another source of uneasiness between the two sides.

EU considers sanctions on Russia