Middle East Conflict Takes Centre Stage in World Diplomacy

16/04/2001| IslamWeb

WORLD CAPITALS, (Islamweb and News Agencies)-From Durban to Moscow, and on to Washington and Middle East capitals, the middle East conflict appeared as intractable on the world diplomatic stage as it is on the ground on the ancient lands of Palestine.
In Durban, South Africa, the United States and Israel pulled out of the World Conference Against Racism on Monday, denouncing efforts to condemn Israel in the meeting's proposed declaration. US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had remained in Washington and was not part of the U.S. delegation, denounced what he called the draft declaration's ``hateful language.''
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announced in Israel that the Jewish state was also pulling out of the conference because of what he called anti-Israel and anti-Semitic comments.
Soon after the U.S. announcement, several hundred angry demonstrators protested outside the conference center, chanting ``Shame, shame, U.S.A.''Norway and Canada had attempted to mediate a compromise between the Arab states and Israel on the conference's draft declaration. The United States was part of those talks.
This is the third world conference on racism, but the first the United States and Israel had attended. Both countries boycotted the 1978 and 1983 conferences because of what the two sides call anti-Israel language.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, visiting Rwanda on a trip to help end fighting in Congo, called the U.S. withdrawal ``unfortunate.''
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, attending the conference as a member of the Black Leadership Forum, said he was disappointed that President Bush allowed the debate over Israel to determine whether the United State would participate. (Read photo caption below)
However, The European Union said it would stay at the conference and endorsed a new proposal by South Africa to draft completely new text on the Middle East.
In Palestine, and in a bid to bring the two sides together, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Palestinian negotiators Monday and planned to hold talks with the Israelis.
Italian Foreign Minister Renato Ruggiero, quoted Sunday in the Italian press, said Egypt might host soon a Peres-Arafat meeting, but an Egyptian diplomat declined to confirm or deny the report.
Arafat and Peres said Monday no date or venue had yet been fixed. And Arafat voiced doubt about the usefulness of such a meeting, saying past encounters failed to yield results.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, intensifying efforts to defuse Arab-Israeli confrontations, met Monday in Syria with his counterpart there, Bashar al-Assad, ahead of a flurry of talks back in Egypt.The talks in Syria's port city of Latakia came as Mubarak steps up contacts with Arab leaders in what analysts say are efforts to maintain support for the Palestinians without going as far as backing their calls for a summit.
But Egyptian analysts remained pessimistic about chances of an end to 11 months of intifadha, uprising against Israeli occupation amid passive US acceptance of Israel's hardline.
Mubarak then returned for talks Tuesday in Alexandria with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whom he will brief on "his latest contacts and talks" with Arab leaders and others, sources at the presidential palace said.
Arafat arrived in Jordan on Monday and is to go to Damascus on September 12 for his first official visit there since 1996. Arafat had strained ties with Assad's father Hafez, who led Syria until his death last year.
After his talks with Arafat, Mubarak will meet Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and Pier Fernando Casini, the speaker of Italy's lower house of parliament, in Alexandria, sources close to Mubarak said.
Abdel Alim Mohammed, an analyst with the government-run Al Ahram daily and center for political studies, said "there's not really a hope to calm things down" as the US administration puts the burden on Arafat to end the violence.
He said Mubarak, who is playing a role to "limit the aggression against the Palestinians," is holding talks with Arab leaders to help support the Palestinians "morally and politically.
Early last month Mubarak, following one of his regular meetings with Arafat, said an Arab summit would serve no use now.
Several weeks later Syria and other Arab countries faulted Arab foreign ministers who met in Cairo last month for not taking concrete action against Israel, such as reactivating the Arab boycott.
Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, is a key ally of the Palestinians, but has tried to bridge the gap between the Palestinians and Israelis.
In Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took his case to the Kremlin, where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Israeli press reports say the prime minister wants to build on the existing relationship between the two nations and explain Israel's so-called outstanding need to fight against what Sharon's aide Raanan Gissin calls "terror''.
Russia has largely left the Middle East stage to the United States despite Moscow's official role as a co-sponsor of the peace process. Arab leaders including Jordan's King Abdullah II, who was in Moscow last week, have urged Russia to get more involved.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks to the press at the U.N. Racism Conference in Durban Monday, Sept. 3, 2001. Jackson, attending the conference as a member of the Black Leadership Forum, said he was disappointed that President Bush had allowed the debate over Israel to determine whether the United State would participate. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
- Sep 03 6:21 PM ET