Brussels, 02/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - After visiting Syria, Israel, and the West Bank, European High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana travelled to Lebanon on Tuesday where he confirmed that efforts to relaunch the peace process in the region had increased and that an announcement could be made in New York as early as mid-September. According to French-language Lebanese daily Orient-le-jour, Solana told his interlocutors that his job was to gather information from the countries affected by the Israel-Palestine conflict to enable him to submit a report to EU foreign ministers before the UN General Assembly convenes.
Solana also gave the Lebanese assurances on two of their major concerns: the settlement of further Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, and the security of a country under permanent threat from Israel which is in open conflict with Hezbollah. The newspaper says that Solana stated that “there is no question of Israeli aggression against Lebanon, but that Lebanon's security had to be consolidated through political agreement and the setting up of a government”. This point was also one of the issues discussed with various leading political figures of a country where, three months after elections, the formation of a government is proving difficult and has seen Lebanese President Michel Sleiman seize the opportunity afforded on Tuesday of an Iftar dinner (a polite gesture during Ramadan) to highlight the urgency of the need for a national government: “Are we unable to form a government of national unity three months after holding a democratic and transparent general election? Or are international deadlines and the concerns of our people not worth our making some sacrifices and cooperating to put in place a government that is able to pick up the reins of the country?”
Along with Solana's meetings, and after the Israeli prime minister's tour of European capitals, a meeting in Washington is planned between US Special Envoy George Mitchell and two high-ranking Israeli officials as a follow-up to the London meetings and to prepare an agreement on Israeli colonies. It would seem the Americans, feeling that time is of the essence, are no longer insisting on a freeze on the creation of new settlements. They want to be able to announce the first success of efforts to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian negotiation process at the UN General Assembly in New York in mid-September. Talks will not be restricted to the issue of colonies, but will include what should be asked in return of the Arab countries, including allowing Israel to open diplomatic representations or “economic sections” in the various capitals. Israeli daily Hâaretz says that the United States wants to be able to announce the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at a tripartite Obama-Netanyahu-Abbas summit in New York. The newspaper claims that preparations are well advanced: White House officials held a briefing for several European Ambassadors during which they set out the American plan, it said. Some of the Ambassadors present told the newspaper that it was not so much a new peace plan as a different diplomatic model from the one proposed by the Annapolis process. The new plan is based on the implementation of the roadmap, but contains a two-year timetable. Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will be face-to-face. An international conference will be called to seal the relaunch, once it has been deemed effective. This conference will be held in a capital yet to be decided: either Moscow, with Russia a member of the Quartet, or Paris, and President Nicolas Sarkozy has already suggested convening a special summit to bring the relaunch of the peace process under the aegis of the Union for the Mediterranean. (F.B./transl.rt)