National News EU, Arabs reject U.S. Mideast policyas ousting Arafat fails to win support

フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする

The United States failed July 16 to win its European and Arab partners over to a new U.S. Middle East strategy.

The new strategy is based on ostracizing Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and defining security for Israelis as a priority for progress toward peace.

But a meeting in New York of the Middle East "quartet" — comprised of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan — and another meeting between the quartet and the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers revealed disagreements on relations with Arafat and on whether Palestinians alone can end Middle East violence.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, who also attended the meetings and whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said, "Now the Palestinians will have elections, and we will see who will become leader then, but whoever is leader is the person the European Union will be talking to."

"They (the Palestinians) are the ones who should determine what their aspirations are, who should determine who their leaders are," said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher.

Powell, who chaired the meetings, said security for Israel from attack by Palestinians must come first in any attempt to resolve the conflict, ahead of political and economic progress.

Security came to the fore after Palestinians ambushed a bus near an Israeli settlement July 16, killing eight and wounding at least 20.

Annan advocated a different approach. "Even if the security track gains some traction, unless we show some progress on the other tracks, that would not work, that would also fail," he said.

アラファト外しに不支持

中東和平に関する4者協議で、アメリカはアラファト議長外しを唱えた米案に対し支持を得られなかった。

Shukan ST: July 26, 2002

(C) All rights reserved