Brussels, 05/04/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has expressed support for the statement made by President Bush on 4 April on the Middle East. It has also kept a low profile after the failure of the European mission to the region that same day. CFSP High Representative Javier Solana may, however, go to the Middle East again in the next few days, "if necessary", say European sources. While the Arab League countries were holding an emergency meeting on Friday and Saturday to support the Palestinians, Javier Solana was to call on them to support the application of a cease-fire and to maintain their support for the Saudi peace plan.
"I warmly welcome the statement of President Bush. It is an expression of determination and leadership", Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, states in a press release. "We offer our full cooperation to the United States and to all other parties determined to secure full and immediate compliance with UN Security Council Resolutions - notably Resolution 1402, which calls for an immediate cessation of all acts of violence, including all acts of terror, provocation, incitement and destruction", he continued. He called on the United States, the EU, Russia, the moderate Arab countries, Israel and the Palestinians to "work closely together". Romano Prodi calls on the Israeli government to "act immediately to withdraw its forces from all Palestinian cities" and on the Palestinian Authority and Chairman Yasser Arafat to "do everything in their power to put an end to terrorist attacks against innocent people".
At the same time, the Europeans did not wish to interpret the attitude of the Israeli government as a snub. Israel had authorised the US envoy, Anthony Zinni, to meet the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, on Friday, just a few hours after having refused this authorisation to the European envoys, Javier Solana and Josep Piqué, President of the EU Council. After this refusal, Messrs Piqué and Solana themselves refused to meet Sharon. While Josep Piqué described the Israeli decision as a "very big mistake", Javier Solana told the press there was no crisis between the European Union and Israel, for, if there were, "we would not be in this situation". The spokesperson for Javier Solana, Christina Gallach, insisted that "there is no snub. There would be a snub if the EU did nothing". "It is not a matter of humiliation but of a political decision", commented Emma Udwin, speaking on behalf of External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten. Before meeting Mr Powell, Mr Patten, together with Messrs Piqué and Solana, welcomed President Bush's "forceful" intervention and insisted that the international community as a whole should be working for peace. "We shall support any initiative that will give results", she said, recalling that the EU/US meeting on 10 April in Madrid will be focused on the Middle East question. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan may be involved in the meeting for a quadrilateral encounter.
Javier Solana had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Colin Powell after the meeting between Anthony Zinni and Yasser Arafat. "We agreed to organise a certain number of meetings between Americans and Palestinians in the next few hours", the American envoy simply said after the meeting. Anthony Zinni was authorised to meet Arafat and not the European delegation because "he is the one who has been conducting negotiations over the past three weeks and he has a different role from the Europeans", commented one of Ariel Sharon's advisers, Avi Pazner, in the Italian daily La Repubblica. "We are making an exception for Zinni, but the government has decided to isolate Arafat. Josep Piqué and Javier Solana made a mistake by cancelling the meeting with Ariel Sharon. They should have found out how things were before coming. Arafat today is the head of a terror coalition and not a Head of State", said Avi Pazner. The spokesman for the Israeli government, Raanan Gissin, had told the Reuters Agency that he thought the EU was " not playing a balanced game in seeking to bring Arafat out of a difficult situation without, at the same time, putting any pressure on him and without making any demands".