Brussels, 24/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Union Troika composed of Council President Louis Michel who is Belgian Foreign Minister, his Spanish counterpart to take over from him, Josep Piqué, High Representative for CFSP Javier Solana and European Commissioner Chris Patten are beginning the trip decided by the European Council on 21 September (see our Special Edition of 22 September) with a meeting with Pakistani authorities, on Tuesday in Islamabad. They will then go on to Teheran, Riyadh, Cairo, Amman and Damascus, to complete its mission on Saturday in Skopje.
"The contacts I had before leaving were positive, mainly with the Pakistanis and the Iranians", Louis Michel told the BELGA Agency, stressing that "we have never been cut off from difficult interlocutors". After the summit on Friday evening, Mr Michel had noted that some of these countries were "willing (…) to review their relations with the EU and the United States" and that it would be a mistake, for example, not to see the positive signs from Iran (we recall, moreover, that Secretary to the Foreign Office Jack Straw was in Iran on Monday).
In Brussels, European Council President Guy Verhofstadt answered questions on RTBF-Radio. He said Belgium's solidarity with Washington would not be purely in "words" but in "actions". He added that "we must wait to see which measures are taken and what demands the United States makes".
During the European Council on Friday, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel had specified that Austria's solidarity towards the Americans could be expressed by allowing its territory to be a fly zone. In addition, it had drawn attention to the risk of terrorist attacks against nuclear power plants. Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres had urged for a war against terrorism and against those who support it, while warning against all irrational action. The Agence Reuters points out that President Chirac proposed during the summit to create a "subsidiary body" of the Security Council responsible for the fight against terrorism. This body would come under the Security Council and be open to States other than the fifteen members.