Attempts to sideline Arafat not useful, says Union’s envoy

Date: 19/06/03

By David Cronin

MARGINALIZING Yasser Arafat from peace talks would not be constructive towards efforts to find a long-term solution to the Middle East conflict, Miguel Moratinos, the outgoing EU envoy to the region, believes.

Last week Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian premier who is set to take over the EU's rotating presidency on 1 July, broke with precedent by declining to visit the Palestinian Authority leader while visiting the Middle East.

Although the US has pursued a policy of making Arafat irrelevant, claiming he is too lenient towards terrorism, it has been customary for EU leaders to meet him as they recognize him as democratically elected.

"To sideline Arafat would not be useful," Moratinos told European Voice. "It would not facilitate the process."

However, he agreed the role of Arafat is less crucial in Palestinian politics now that the veteran leader has named Mahmoud Abbas (also known as Abu Mazen) prime minister. "Arafat is not the issue," Moratinos added. "The issue is implementing the road-map."

Appointed the Union's envoy in 1996, the Spanish diplomat's mandate expires on 30 June.

He contends that the EU may have to re-evaluate its policy towards Hamas, the Islamic movement opposed to current peace efforts. Until now, the EU has resisted Israeli calls to add the political wing of Hamas to its list of recognized terrorist organizations, although its military wing has been included.

"I think Hamas and other groups have a historical and strategic decision to take. If they go for a ceasefire, they will find support and cooperation from the EU. If they don't, then Europe will have to think about its relations with these groups.

"We can't be talking to them one day and then wake up the following morning to hear they have claimed responsibility for having killed 15 or 20 civilians in a street of Israel," Moratinos said.

While the recently published road-map, designed to create a viable Palestinian state within three years, has been backed by the Middle East quartet (the EU, US, United Nations and Russia), Moratinos dubbed it a "European concept".

His current posting was due to a decision by EU governments to take an active role in the quest for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Before that time the Union had essentially limited itself to providing aid for the region.

"Six-and-a-half years ago Europe was not part of the process," he commented. "But the road-map is a European concept. "

"Europeans can be cautiously satisfied and modestly proud of what has been achieved."

He also gave credit to EU policymakers for convincing the US to resume efforts to broker a settlement in the Middle East; George W. Bush called the peace process his "highest priority" when he met Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, and Abbas on 4 June.

"The return of the American administration and the US president [to the peace process] is thanks to European tenacity," Moratinos remarked.

"Before, during and after the Iraq war, European leaders decided to go to the White House to convince President Bush it is of the utmost importance to get the Americans back."

Moratinos (52), who has worked on African and Middle East affairs since the 1980s, described the last two-and-a-half years of almost relentless bloodshed as extremely complicated but said he is leaving his current post with a degree of hope, now that the road-map has been published.

His immediate priority in the near future will be to spend more time with his family, he said, but he wishes to remain active in diplomatic efforts to achieve a durable Middle East peace settlement.

The EU envoy to the Middle East, Miguel Moratinos, has criticised attempts to marginalise Yasser Arafat.