BRUSSELS/WASHINGTON, 6 November — European Union officials yesterday said they were working with the United States, Russia and the United Nations on new initiatives to end Middle East violence, as the Bush administration is expected to announce a new policy statement on the Middle East, specifically calling for Palestinian statehood.
"We need a strong push in the direction of the peace process," European Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters in Brussels following talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. "We agreed that we need joint efforts by the US, Europe, the United Nations, Russia and Arab states," he said.
"We cannot go on with a situation of bloodshed and fighting that is destroying entire communities," Prodi insisted, adding: "In this desperate moment, we have a moral and political obligation to intervene." Joint action, involving EU and US efforts, was "indispensable," said Prodi.
The European Union, working in close contact with the United States, is keen to achieve some kind of progress in the Middle East to shore up Arab support for the US-led strikes in Afghanistan. Details of the US plan are still being debated within the administration, and Mideast observers in Washington say both Arab nations and Israel are exerting tremendous pressure to influence the White House.
In a very significant move, the hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has canceled his trip to the United States to avoid a face-off with the administration over the continued presence of Israeli forces in the occupied territories, and to underline his displeasure with the Bush administration’s intentions to announce its commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The statement, which is likely to be made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and may be delivered at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Nov. 10, is not expected to touch sensitive issues such as the final status of Jerusalem and the plight of Palestinian refugees.
In Brussels, Belgian Prime Minister and current EU President Guy Verhofstadt also insisted earlier of the "absolute need" for joint international moves to end Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Arafat, standing next to Prodi, said Palestinians were "strategically committed" to the peace process. "I am making that commitment again publicly," the Palestinian leader told reporters.
Israeli diplomats say there are no plans for a bilateral meeting between Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres although both men are in Brussels to attend a meeting of European Union and southern Mediterranean states. Tension is also growing between Sharon and Peres. Sharon clashed with Peres over his meeting with Arafat this weekend in an island off Spain. Sharon is said to have relented only after intense American pressure and Labor Party threats to leave coalition. Underscoring his anger with Sharon, Peres told the Israeli daily, Maariv, that "if I were prime minister, we would be in a much better position. I would conduct peace talks under fire … because you can’t stop the fire with fire alone."
Yesterday’s activity in Brussels was taking place as Israeli security forces withdrew from another Palestinian West Bank town at dawn, bringing the number of Palestinian-ruled cities they were holding to four. Palestinian security officials confirmed that some 30 Israeli tanks had left Qalqilya.
