JEDDAH, 19 May 2004 — Peace and reforms should go hand in hand in the Middle East and cannot be the object of a tradeoff, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told his European counterparts at a meeting in Brussels.
“We are deeply concerned when voices are heard suggesting a tradeoff between (the) need for reforms and the need for peace,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Prince Saud telling a meeting of Gulf and European Union officials.
“We should not utilize the pressing need for reforms to postpone or ignore the equally pressing need for peace ... The other side of the coin is equally valid — reforms should not be held hostage by developments in the peace process,” he said Monday night.
SPA quoted EU Commissioner Chris Patten as saying after the talks on a long-stalled free trade accord between the EU and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that the pact might be sealed before the end of the year.
“There will be two final rounds of negotiations between the two sides before the signing” in July and the fall, Patten said.
The two groups signed a framework economic cooperation agreement in 1998 but have failed to strike a free trade pact.
Reflecting concern in the Arab world at perceived US attempts to impose reform, Prince Saud said Saudi Arabia was “committed to the path of reforms before the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative was launched.”
“These reform efforts will continue through calculated steps regardless of any internal reservations or external pressures,” he said.
Prince Saud said the West could help the reform process in the region by providing investment, transferring technology, signing free trade agreements, and supporting Riyadh’s efforts to join the WTO.
He also urged Western countries to set an example by protecting freedom and human rights and ending discrimination and “not by dictating terms from above or interference from outside or adopting double standards that weaken the credibility of such a model.”
He added a “strategic partnership” between the European and Gulf blocs would be linked to their contribution to establishing a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
The Saudi chief diplomat said the setbacks to the Middle East peace process “and the ensuing rise of violence and extremism in our region,” were chiefly a result of Israeli policies that contradict “all agreed principles and foundations of the peace process, including those of the road map and the American vision of two states living in peace and security” side by side.
“I am saddened to say that this irrational Israeli path recently received full support from the United States,” he said in reference to Washington’s backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral plan to withdraw from Gaza.
Prince Saud suggested combining the peace road map drafted by the so-called quartet (United States, United Nations, EU and Russia) with Crown Prince Abdullah’s Arab peace plan. “Perhaps the best way for strengthening the quartet’s efforts is by institutionally combining the road map and the Arab peace plan through integrating the efforts of the quartet and the Arab League peace committee,” he said.
“The Arab peace initiative, in our opinion, contains more comprehensive elements regarding the final peace settlement, for it provides for peace between Israel and all the Arabs,” he added.
