MIDDLE EAST: Arafat Has EU Support, Says Spanish Premier

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Mar 27 2002 (IPS) - Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar, as current president of the European Union (EU), expressed explicit support for Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, addressing the Arab League Summit as it got under way in Beirut Wednesday.

As he began his speech, Aznar greeted all the Arab heads of state “and especially president Yasser Arafat, legitimate representative of the Palestine Authority.” He expressed regret that Arafat was unable to attend the meeting.

The military blockade Israel has imposed on Arafat’s residence and headquarters of the Palestine Authority in the West Bank city of Ramallah prevented him from travelling to Beirut.

Aznar, since he took the helm of the six-month rotating EU presidency, has voiced support for Saudi Arabia’s peace plan for the Middle East and for Palestinian demands.

The most recent occasion occurred last week when a spokesperson told journalists that the Spanish premier planned to meet with Arafat on Monday or Tuesday, perhaps in southern Spain.

The meeting did not take place due to the Israeli restrictions on Arafat’s movements, but Aznar’s intentions were interpreted as support for the Palestinian leader and a source of pressure on the Israeli government to allow Arafat to travel.

Aznar insisted that the EU give full political and economic backing, “however and when it is needed”, to end the violence in the zone and to achieve recognition of Palestine and Israel as two sovereign and independent states.

In that sense, he indicated that the Saudi-backed peace plan is a positive step and stressed that it is currently “impossible to imagine a military solution” to the conflict.

The Saudi peace plan proposes that all Arab countries recognize the state of Israel, as long as it withdraws to within the borders of 1967, when the Six-Day War erupted and Israel occupied all Palestinian territories, as well as parts of Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Spanish daily ‘El País’, Arafat said he had consulted with others on each and every one of the details of the Saudi plan, and stressed that, “for the first time” there is a chance for total Arab agreement.

Arafat, after pointing out that the Palestine people “are the only ones in the world under foreign occupation,” said he was confident that the process would end with recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state.

He said that when he left Beirut 20 years ago, and was asked where he was headed, he responded “Palestine”. “Many believed that I was out of my mind. Now we are speaking here.”

“I continue to repeat that I will go to Jerusalem, to east Jerusalem, which is part of the territory occupied in 1967 and the capital of the Palestinian state,” he concluded.

Aznar’s trip to Beirut is significant because it is the first time that a European head of state has taken part in a meeting of the Arab League and expressed the willingness promote the peace process.

At the European Council, which met Mar 15-16 in the Spanish city of Barcelona, an attempt was made to win approval of a French proposal for immediate and formal recognition of the Palestinian state. The measure failed.

Germany, Britain and the Netherlands opposed it, arguing the need to protect Israel’s security, a similar stance to that of the United States. In essence, it is a requirement that the Palestine National Authority prevent its citizens from engaging in violence and punishing those who do.

Arafat maintains that the Intifada, as the popular uprising in Palestine against Israeli occupation is known, “has shown that it is impossible to overcome the collective will of the Palestinian people to achieve recognition of their rights.”

If the Saudi peace plan is approved – it has the support of the EU and of U.S. President George W. Bush – it likely would force Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to suspend military actions in the Palestinian territories and to sit down to negotiate peace.