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Israeli Presence Souring EuroMed Meeting for Arab Participants
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| Anti-Israeli
protests were held outside a reception for ministers attending
the EuroMed conference
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VALENCIA,
Spain, April 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The presence of
Israeli delegates is souring a EuroMed meeting in Valencia, Spain for
Arab participants. This tension was highlighted Tuesday, April 23,
when the “family photo” that has become a tradition at meetings of
the European Union had to be scrapped because Arab participants
refused to smile for the camera in protest against Israel’s military
assault on Palestinians.
"For
the moment, they do not consider themselves part of the family,"
said an E.U. diplomat, referring to Arab foreign ministers' refusal to
say "cheese" in a photo that included Israeli counterpart,
Shimon Peres.
This came just hours after Arab state ministers walked out of the
meeting’s opening session Monday night, April 22, when Israeli
Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, standing in for the
late-arriving Peres, rose to speak.
Tunisian
Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia and Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian
delegate, walked out of the meeting to protest Israel's military
assault on Palestinians and its confinement of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat to his West Bank compound.
Ben
Yahia accused Israel of “humiliating” Palestinians. “This
is why we cannot have peace in the Middle East,” officials quoted
him as saying.
Shaath said he
feared Israeli troops were going to kill Arafat. “I am afraid for
his life,” he was quoted as saying by an E.U. source.
Israeli
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who arrived for the meeting's second
day after an unexplained "technical" delay, was meeting with
E.U. foreign ministers, who had held talks separately earlier in the
morning with the Palestinian delegation and the Arab states
delegation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
meeting with the Palestinians, headed by Shaath, Palestinian Minister
for International Cooperation, dwelt on massive damage resulting from
Israeli military offensives against Palestinian infrastructure
financed by the European Union, said an E.U. source.
Peres
also had bilateral meetings scheduled with the foreign ministers of
Britain, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, according to conference
sources, AFP reported.
A
spokesman for Peres said Tuesday that E.U. diplomats barred from
meeting the sequestered Palestinian President in the West Bank will be
able to see him beginning next month.
The
E.U. delegation, including External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten
and foreign policy chief Javier Solana, were to meet later with the
Agadir group, a trade association comprising Jordan, Egypt, Morocco
and Tunisia.
Several
E.U. countries have been increasingly bitter in their criticism of
Israel's aggressive military reaction to Palestinian martyr
operations.
The
meeting of foreign ministers of the E.U. and Mediterranean rim
countries in this port city in eastern Spain was completely overtaken
at its opening session late Monday by Middle East events as Arab
ministers abruptly walked out during an Israeli presentation.
Israeli
Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Melchior, standing in for the
late-arriving Peres, told reporters after the meeting that his country
was "determined and committed to the process of building ... an
atmosphere which will make peace possible.”
The
Arab ministers had earlier announced they would boycott Peres' speech
scheduled for Tuesday, and two Arab member nations of the EuroMed Pact
- Lebanon and Syria - were boycotting the entire conference in protest
at deadly Israeli military action in the Palestinian territories.
Opening
the first work session Monday night, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep
Pique, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, acknowledged
the meeting was being held "in the most difficult circumstances
we've seen in the Middle East in years.
"We
must put an end to this destructive violence," he said.
"Terrorist acts hit cruelly at the idea of civilization itself,
as do disproportionate and excessive military actions in the
territories" occupied by Israel.
Meanwhile,
demonstrators protested the situation in the Middle East outside a
reception for ministers attending the E.U.-Mediterranean conference in
Valencia.
The
EuroMed partnership, known as the Barcelona Process for the Spanish
city where it was created in 1995, includes the 15-nation E.U., plus
Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, the
Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
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