Brussels, 06/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - “Any move likely to increase tension is unhelpful, unwelcome and unconstructive to our achieving our goal, a goal which is one that Europe, the United Nations and our American partners are also trying to achieve,” said the spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry on 2 April, referring to the Israeli army's bombardment of Gaza and Palestinian rocket fire on Israel. France, of course, jointly presides the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). “We have a dual stance. Everything must be done to avoid further tension and calm it when it appears, and to ensure that the situation on the ground is calm. That is our concern,” the spokesman said. He added: “Obviously, we are continuing to work and to be ready for a return to a peace dynamic. That is what is important and what must prevail”. He pointed out that, during his recent visit to Washington, President Sarkozy had said that “the priority was to get the peace process going again”. “Any increased tension does not help this aim,” he said then.
Neither France not Spain, which will hold the rotating Presidency of the EU until the end of June, wants anything to disturb an already highly complex situation in the Middle East, which could compromise the UfM “summit” in Barcelona at the end of June. Further storm clouds are growing between the two joint presidencies of the UfM, though neither France nor Egypt wish to overstate matters. While cultural in nature, the concerns have strong political overtones and relate to relations with Israel: Egypt is refusing to show a film by Israeli director Karen Ben Rafael at the “Rencontres de l'image” festival in Cairo, which France helps fund. The French Foreign Ministry spokesman regretted the withdrawal of the Egyptian delegation from the festival, but indicated that the film, entitled “Almost normal”, would, indeed, be screened. “We regret the departure of the Egyptian jury members and hope that things will now go well for the festival, that it will help young French and Egyptian film makers, and that it will provoke genuine debate and not empty rhetoric”.
Elsewhere, it has been reported in the press that, at the weekend, Israel allowed several convoys of clothes to enter the Gaza Strip, on which a blockade has been imposed for several months. This is the first non-humanitarian convoy since 2007. (F.B./transl.rt)