In a sign of growing frustration at diplomatic inaction as Israeli-Palestinian violence escalates, Spain, France and Italy on Thursday unveiled a five-point peace initiative, taking Britain by surprise.
Downing Street confirmed on Thursday night that it had not been consulted and had no prior knowledge of the plan, which envisages a leading role for Europe in ending the conflict. British Foreign Office sources said they had first learned of it from a news item on the BBC.
José Luis RodrÃÂguez Zapatero, Spain’s Prime Minister, announced the initiative at a summit with Jacques Chirac, the French President, in the Catalan city of Girona, near the French border. ”We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes,” Zapatero told a news conference after the meeting. ”Violence has reached a level of deterioration that requires determined, urgent action by the international community.” Italy also backs the initiative, he added.
One particular cause of frustration has been the United States veto, last Saturday, of a Security Council resolution condemning Israel in the wake of an artillery attack in Gaza which killed 18 Palestinian civilians. France, a permanent member of the council, voted in favour, describing its text as ”balanced”, but Britain abstained.
The plan announced on Thursday has five components: an immediate ceasefire; formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition; an exchange of prisoners, including the Israeli soldiers whose seizure sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer; talks between Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president; and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a ceasefire.
In Rome, Prime Minister Romano Prodi described the plan as ”a series of actions aimed at achieving concrete results in a situation where suffering has reached intolerable levels”, adding that it would use ”as its starting point” the presence of international troops in the peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.
Speaking to businessmen and professors after the meeting, Chirac said: ”When I arrived, Zapatero said to me: ‘We have the same vision of problems and concerns over the Middle East and particularly Palestine. We should take a common initiative.’ Our three countries have the sensitivity, the same interests, and the same morals, and maybe we can play a part in working out a solution to the Palestinian problem and putting it into action.”
France commands the Unifil force in Lebanon that was expanded following the end of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in August. Spain and Italy — though not Britain — are also among the group of mainly European countries providing troops there.
On Thursday, Zapatero said that it made sense for the three largest contributors to the UN force to assert themselves for peace. ”Someone has to take the first move,” he said. The plan would be put to an EU summit in December, and he hoped Britain and Germany would support it. A British Foreign Office spokesperson said on Thursday night: ”We look forward to discussing it with EU partners when it is brought forward.”
However, the public announcement of the initiative without informing Britain beforehand could be viewed as an attempt by Spain, France and Italy to outflank British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose Middle East policies are closer to those of Washington.
Also, with the Bush administration’s policies in disarray following the US elections, Spain, France and Italy may sense an opportunity for Europe to take a more proactive role in reviving the peace process. In 1991, when Bush’s father was president, Spain hosted the Madrid peace conference which resulted in the Oslo accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
There was no immediate reaction from Israel, the Palestinians, or Washington on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Iran announced that it had so far donated $120-million to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and was ready to give more.
In Paris, a relief group said that two in three people in Gaza had no running water after Israel’s offensive in late June, and chronic illness, trauma and mental health cases had risen sharply; Western financial sanctions after Hamas came to power in March after winning elections had caused suffering, along with Israeli strikes, and should stop.
”Gaza is being intentionally kept on artificial respiration, and the population is suffering from collective depression,” said Médecins du Monde. – Guardian Unlimited Â