Europe, Headlines, Middle East & North Africa

MIDDLE EAST: Spain’s Toledo Offers to Host Peace Talks

Tito Drago

MADRID, May 12 2003 (IPS) - The proposition from the central Spanish city of Toledo to host the next Middle East peace conference won support Monday from Palestinian and Israeli representatives.

Toledo Mayor José Manuel Molina, of the centre-right governing People’s Party (PP), presented the proposal at a Middle East seminar Monday in Toledo, which heads the Organisation of World Heritage Cities.

Known as the City of Three Cultures, in its long history Toledo has been home to populations of Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, and preserves the impacts of their history and cultures on this city 80 km south of Madrid.

Support for Molina’s proposal was evident among participants in the Monday forum, despite word in diplomatic circles here that the Spanish government has given up on organising a Middle East peace conference, caving to pressure from France, which wants to hold the talks in Paris.

Spain has precedents for hosting peace negotiations, as the first Middle East conference on the matter was held in Madrid in 1991, sponsored by the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union.

The Toledo offer has the backing of Shlomo ben Ami, former Israeli minister of public security (1999) and foreign relations (2000-2001), Nabil Maaruf, representative the Palestine National Authority in Spain, and of Mosehn Bilal, Syria’s ambassador to Spain.

Also supporting the initiative is Spain’s Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, who noted that "few cities have as many merits as Toledo" for hosting the meeting, alluding to its cultural roots. She clarified that the event is not even in the planning stages, "but as an prospect it is interesting."

Syrian diplomat Bilal said in an interview with IPS that a conference for peace must not be restricted only to relations between Israel and Palestine, but should include the entire Middle East.

In reference to the proposal to re-launch a peace process, he commented that what is known as the "road map for peace is not clear because it is limited to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, but should include Golan and southern Lebanon."

"This is an Arab-Israeli matter, not just Palestinian – Israeli."

The European Union ambassador for the Middle East, Miguel Angel Moratinos, told IPS that he believes the talks should involve all countries of that region and that "the (Israeli) withdrawal from the Golan Heights should be included in negotiations."

The Golan Heights, a strategic enclave on the Syrian- Palestinian border, were occupied by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967, and Syria has been demanding the return of that territory since.

The "road map" was drafted by the mediating "Quartet" comprising the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia, with the objective being that at the end of the negotiations, slated for 2005, Palestine and Israel would coexist as two safe and sovereign states.

The initiative entails three phases and requires both sides to follow a series of parallel steps over two years.

The first steps required of the Palestinian National Authority is to halt violence against Israel and initiate political and economic reforms, one of which began with the designation of Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, as prime minister.

For its part, Israel must withdraw its armed forces from key areas of the West Bank and lighten the blockade imposed on the occupied territories, halt construction of Jewish settlements in those areas and dismantle those built since September 2000.

The strongest voice in the Quartet is that of the United States, whose Secretary of States Colin Powell visited Jerusalem over the weekend, and urged Israelis and Palestinians to take practical steps towards the peace plan.

Both sides responded by requesting that the other give proof of desire for progress. The Israeli government lifted the restrictions on movements imposed in the Palestinian territories as a "goodwill gesture" during Powell’s visit.

But less than 24 hours later it shut down all activity and movement in the Gaza Strip and in the towns of Kalkilia and Tulkarem, in the northern West Bank, declaring a curfew.

Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat said Sunday in an interview on Televisión Española that he had not been pressured from abroad to designate Mazen as prime minister, noting that he had only received aid and cooperation.

Arafat says it is essential immediately to publish and implement the road map designed by the Quartet.

"First it was postponed until after the elections in Palestine, then they said it was impossible due to the occupation of our lands, later it was postponed until after Israeli elections."

"Then it was delayed until the formation of the Israeli government, and when that was created it was put off until after the formation of a Palestinian government… Now we have a Palestinian government. It should be applied now," stated the Palestinian leader.

When asked about the much-commented disagreements between Arafat and Mazen, EU ambassador Moratinos said, "There are no winners and no losers."

The tensions have diminished and the two will work together "because they need each other," said Moratinos. And the controversial Arafat? "Arafat has come out, if one might say so, strengthened by the crisis," he told IPS.