Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-06-06-Speech-3-089"
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"en.20070606.13.3-089"2
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".
Mr President, I should very briefly like to reply to the contributions from the honourable Members representing the different political groups in this House.
I think that most of the speeches followed a line which is in a sense the same one that we have been defending for a long time: namely, the time has come to move on from the policy of crisis management – which is very important, but it is not enough. We need policies, together with crisis management, to solving the conflict. We need to work towards a political horizon to really begin to get into the business of solving the conflict that started 40 years ago. That is basically the view everybody has expressed, and it is something that we will be trying to do in the coming days.
I told you that last Wednesday the Quartet met in Berlin, and I said that for the first time the Quartet is committed to starting a debate with the parties in order to begin to work towards a political horizon. This means that, before the end of this month, the Quartet will meet with the Palestinians and Israelis in order to push forward the dialogue – which is still in its preliminary stages – that has begun between President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert. They are the two people who must find the way towards peace. It is our obligation to push and to provide a catalyst for this process. That is what we are going to do. It is written very clearly in the statement produced by the Quartet last Wednesday. I think that this is a profound change, and I would like to underline that, because someone asked whether we are going wait passively for a catastrophe to arrive. The answer is no: we do not want to do that; you do not want to do that; the people in the region do not want to do that. Therefore, under the leadership of the Quartet, we are trying to put forward this mechanism in order to move towards peace.
A few other ideas were put forward by some of the honourable Members representing the political groups, including the suggestion of an international force. I would like to say that, for the first time in many years, the idea of an international force is not out of the question. As you know, the idea was brought up in the Knesset by two members of the parliamentary groups, saying that this may be the time to call for an international force, at least at the beginning, in a peacekeeping role or to control the border in the south – the so-called ‘Philadelphi Corridor’ – where the Rafah Crossing is situated. We are working on that, as you probably know, because information has already been published. The Israelis are also considering that possibility, as are the Palestinians. The Egyptians are also considering that possibility with different intensity. For the Egyptians it would probably be very difficult to have an international force there, as it may give the impression that they are not able to control that part of the border. However, I think that we can still begin discussions on these issues and perhaps eventually reach a solution.
This also ties in with what Mrs Napoletano said about the success of UNIFIL. The fact that the international force has been responsible for UNIFIL – i.e. for the application of the UN Security Council resolution on Lebanon – and the manner in which it has been perceived – i.e. the efficiency of the force, of which the backbone is European – have also caused some in the Israeli Government, the Knesset and Israel as a whole to think that it might be possible for a force of that nature also to be applied elsewhere.
In a way, we have to link all the issues together. It may be possible for us to use what we have learned from our presence in Lebanon in another place. That opens the way to a monitoring presence which will be absolutely necessary if we want the peace process to come to fruition.
I would like to stress again that, as regards Lebanon, the resolution creating the tribunal is very important. The tribunal is not against anybody. There has been a very negative reaction in Syria, but I must stress that an international tribunal is not against anybody, any country. It is a tribunal that is organised in order to see who is responsible for the killing of a good man – a friend of many of ours, Mr Hariri – who was assassinated in a manner that has to be clarified if we want peace and reconciliation in Lebanon. Therefore we in the European Union have been working towards this, and last Wednesday the Security Council came to another important decision on setting up an international tribunal.
I would like to say once again that what we have striven to do in taking the Quartet in the direction that we are now moving is something that has many fathers – or many mothers – as always, but you can be sure that the Europeans have been working very hard from the very beginning to arrive at this moment. Let us hope that we are able to continue working in that direction. It will be difficult, but for the future I hope to have the support, help and understanding of the European Parliament, as always."@en1
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