Arabs to boycott Euro-Med talks as violence continues

Date: 02/11/00

By Simon Taylor

SEVERAL countries look set to boycott this month's keynote meeting of signatories to the EU's Euro-Med programme as the violence in the Middle East continues.

Arab leaders have agreed to suspend all forms of multilateral collaboration involving Israel in protest at the government's repression of demonstrators. Union governments have offered to abandon plans to discuss security cooperation at the meeting in Marseille to encourage Arab countries to attend, but some are still expected to stay away.

The threat to the talks comes as diplomats warn that the EU will not be able to play a bigger role in the Middle East peace process in future, despite Palestinian calls for an end to the US monopoly on mediating at talks with the Israelis.

They say the Union could not take a leading role in re-starting the stalled negotiations because it lacks the US' political influence over Israel. They add that French President Jacques Chirac damaged hopes of a bigger role for the EU last month with his poor handling of a crucial meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

The former Palestinian chief negotiator at the 1994 Oslo peace talks said last week that the Union should become more involved in brokering an agreement in any future negotiations, ending the current situation in which the US is the sole intermediary between the two sides. "The old formula cannot be accepted anymore and does not lead to a permanent deal," insisted Ahmed Qurei.

But diplomats say the EU is not in a position to step into the breach.

"We are too big to be a Norway," said one envoy, referring to the behind the scenes Norwegian diplomacy which helped produce the 1994 Oslo peace accord.

"We cannot do things in secret the way they can, yet at the same time we just do not have as much clout with the Israelis as the US."

Officials also say any chance the Union had of playing a greater role suffered a severe setback in September when Chirac and Barak exchanged angry words over the Middle East situation.

They add that the EU's role in the peace process would be limited to a seat on the committee of inquiry being set up by the US and the United Nations to investigate the events which led to the outbreak of violence over the Al-Asqa temple in Jerusalem.

Several countries look set to boycott the forthcoming keynote meeting of signatories to the EU's Euro-Med programme as the violence in the Middle East continues.