CAIRO, 13 October 2003 — European Commission chief Romano Prodi after talks here yesterday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that they shared a deeply gloomy view of the way events were unfolding in the Middle East. “We shared deep pessimism on the evolution of the situation in the Middle East,” Prodi told a news conference following his talks with Mubarak.
“On Iraq, the situation has been worsening and it is difficult to find a solution if the Iraqi people are not involved in the (political) process and the UN doesn’t take a role,” Prodi said.
He added that the European Union was ready to participate in reconstruction efforts, but first demanded “a real role” for the United Nations and an increased role for the Iraqi people. He also said: “We do not see any light in the near future” regarding efforts to end the three-year spiral of Israeli-Palestinian violence and restart moribund peace talks.
He said one reason for “our pessimism (is) we don’t see any pressure by the United States” on the parties to implement the road map drafted by the quartet of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Despite the troubles, though, he said the quartet should remain a “power” mediating in the Middle East conflict.
“We see the limits of our action in this moment because there is a road map but there is no way to put it in practice and there is no will to start a concrete action.
“And because of the political situation in the area I do not think, at least in the short run, that there will be a change,” said Prodi. The road map sets out a series of steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel by 2005.
“In my interpretation, any increase in the authority of the UN in this moment will help the peace process,” he said. He criticized a controversial security barrier which Israel is building through the West Bank.
