Madrid/Cairo, 09/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - 09/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The President of the EU Council, Josep Piqué, will be going on mission to the Middle East where he will certainly be meeting the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. In reply to questions on the role of Arafat, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs repeated that the Palestinian Authority had a President elected by the Palestinians, which would remain the position of the EU.
Meanwhile, CFSP High Representative Javier Solana continued his tour of the Middle East with a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Moubarak in Cairo during which he stressed his commitment to resolving the situation and the common will to continue efforts together to relaunch the peace process. Mr Solana also met the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Maher and declared that he was a little more optimistic than he was three months ago in seeing efforts succeed in bringing the violence to an end and obtain a cease fire that would allow a dialogue between he spokespersons for peace.
Javier Solana, however, on 9 November had to condemn a new attack on an Israeli military installation near Gaza, which provoked the deaths of four soldiers, and two Palestinians. In the declaration, Mr Solana deplored the fact that this action had occurred the moment when a significant reduction in the level of violence was being noticed, as well as serious efforts to combat terrorism.