Brussels, 19/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - At his meeting with MEPs on Wednesday morning (see above), Javier Solana was able to share at least one bit of good news - concerning the Middle East. Following the statements by Yasser Arafat to diplomats (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.5) and the start of Israeli withdrawals (from Jericho in particular), Mr Solana told Parliament that there was a degree of hope in the air and stressed that work was continuing to try and get Peres and Arafat to meet up, the sooner the better. Mr Solana stressed that the European Union had made enormous efforts throughout the summer to try and arrange such a meeting and the EU's Middle East Representative, Miguel Angel Moratinos, had spent the night of Monday to Tuesday at Yasser Arafat's side in order to try and smooth the way towards a meeting of the two leaders. (Mr Solana himself was in the Middle East from 2 to 6 September.) Mr Solana explained that the day before, they had tried to arrange a meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian security forces and hoped this would materialise on Wednesday. He added that it was not a matter of inventing anything new or revolutionary, but rather of sticking to the recommendations in the Mitchell Report (that Mr Solana helped to draw up, along with the United States and the two sides in the Middle East).
MEPs gave a sustained ovation to Mr Solana's homage to the people in the field (particularly Mr Moratinos) and the President of the Socialist group, Enrique Baron, confirmed that in addition to the long-desired Peres-Arafat meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, would also have to commit himself publicly to getting the Peace Process going again.