Europe, Headlines, Middle East & North Africa

MIDEAST: Conflict Tops Med Union Agenda

Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

CAIRO, Jul 16 2008 (IPS) - The Union for the Mediterranean, a French-led grouping of EU nations plus 16 non-European Mediterranean states, was inaugurated Sunday (Jul. 13). The launch of the forum, of which Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is co-president, was dominated by issues related to the perennial Arab-Israeli dispute.

“Most Arab states participated in hope that the new union would adopt a balanced position on the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Ayman Abdelaziz Salaama, international law professor at Cairo University, told IPS.

Held in Paris amid much fanfare, the event brought together heads of state from the 27 countries of the EU and 16 countries of the Middle East, North Africa and the West Balkans. Participants from the Middle East and North Africa were Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Albania, Monaco, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia, in addition to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA).

First proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy last year, the union’s stated aim is to bolster cooperation between member nations in the fields of security, immigration, environment, civil rights, education, culture and development. Sarkozy presided over the event as co-president representing the northern states, while Mubarak stood as co-president for states of the southern and eastern Mediterranean regions.

“We don’t only want to be neighbours, but partners,” Sarkozy said in his opening address. “We cannot succeed in building a better future except by sharing authority and respecting one another.”

The initiative seeks to build on the Barcelona Process, a 35-state regional grouping launched in 1995 with the similar objective of fostering ties between members. The Barcelona initiative, however, was subsequently bogged down by political and trade disputes between southern member nations and their more affluent northern counterparts.

“Today’s summit puts cooperation between the regions of the Mediterranean at the forefront of concern,” Mubarak said in his opening speech. “It represents a new phase of the partnership that first began in Barcelona.”

The newly created union’s functional details remain vague. But according to a joint declaration by member states, a secretariat-general for the new regional grouping will be established in November. Union summits are expected to be convened every two years.

Along with intra-regional development and security issues, the forum will also provide a high-profile venue for French diplomacy – recently revitalised under Sarkozy – in the Middle East. Speaking at the event, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was a “time of hope” for Middle East peace and that “a new wind of dialogue is blowing” around the Mediterranean region.

“Sarkozy is taking advantage of the current crises faced by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Salaama. “Through the union, he is hoping to reinvigorate French influence in North Africa and the Middle East.”

Given the politically varied assortment of member states, including troubled Lebanon and arch-foes Israel and Syria, the summit was dominated by a number of pressing Middle East issues.

Most notably, the event saw the re-emergence of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after years of international isolation following the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. Despite lack of evidence, most western nations – led by the U.S. – hastened to blame Syria for the killing.

For the last several months, Syria has been holding indirect peace negotiations with Israel through Turkish mediators. The talks are aimed at settling the issue of the Syrian Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967, and reaching a mutually acceptable agreement on borders and water resources.

“Syria’s attendance at the conference represented its first step out of international isolation,” said Salaama. “Syria hopes that its participation in the union will strengthen its hand in the current negotiations with Israel.”

After a meeting with his French, Lebanese and Qatari counterparts, Assad called on Europe – and France in particular – to play a larger role in achieving peace in the Middle East. He went on to blast U.S. policy in the region, saying that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush “doesn’t care about the Middle East peace process.”

The summit also featured meetings between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Despite the fact that several rounds of Olmert-Abbas peace talks – held intermittently since last year’s Annapolis conference – have so far failed to make progress, Olmert expressed public optimism regarding the prospects for a final settlement.

“We’ve never been closer to reaching a possible (Israeli-Palestinian) peace agreement than we are today,” Olmert told reporters following a meeting with Abbas and Sarkozy.

But according to Salaama, the Israeli PM’s rosy assessment constituted little more than window-dressing.

“Olmert’s statements in this regard were just for show,” he said. “No Israeli prime minister would voluntarily agree to a just settlement including the return of Arab land and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.”

The only Mediterranean head of state to boycott the event was outspoken Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi. In the run-up to the summit, Gaddafi said the French-led initiative was merely a ruse aimed at promoting normalised Arab relations with Israel in the absence of a just settlement on Palestine.

In a joint address with Sarkozy, Mubarak denied the Libyan leader’s assertions. “That the union was launched to promote normalised relations (with Israel) is not logical,” the Egyptian president said. “Member states are free to establish relations with whatever countries they want.”

Egypt, Jordan and Qatar are the only Arab nations that have official diplomatic relations with Israel. The rest refuse to normalise relations with the self-proclaimed Jewish state in the absence of a mutually acceptable peace deal with the Palestinians.

According to Salaama, Gaddafi – despite his reputation for eccentricity – makes a valid point.

“According to the Arab position, Arab states that do not currently recognise Israel are not supposed to participate in any joint projects with it in the absence of a just peace,” he said. “Gaddafi’s fears – that the union will lead to Arab cooperation with Israel with no justice for the Palestinians – are not without some basis in fact.”