Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-01-14-Speech-3-264"
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"en.20090114.16.3-264"2
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"Mr President, I think we all would have hoped for a better start to 2009. Unfortunately, we face a terrible and appalling conflict in Gaza, which is now in its third week.
We coordinated closely, including a joint meeting in Ramallah, where President Sarkozy outlined his ceasefire plan, for which we – the troika – had to some extent paved the way through our discussions with key stakeholders, particularly Egypt and Jerusalem.
These efforts reinforced each other, sending a strong, united message from the European Union, and the troika not only conveyed this EU institutional position but also manifested our presence. I think it was important that President Sarkozy also went to Syria and then Mr Solana accompanied him to Syria and Lebanon and also consulted with Turkey. I think all of this was needed.
I particularly stressed the humanitarian situation, as has already been said, and I called particularly for the opening of the crossings and also for the possibility of at least some hours of ceasefire to allow the work of the international organisations to be carried out. Israel accepted some of these points, and, in the negotiations with the Israeli Government, I also secured the co-location of an ECHO official in the Israeli Defence Force premises to coordinate the channelling of humanitarian aid with the Israeli armed forces, as had been done in the war in Lebanon, and that was a powerful tool for better coordination.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to all the courageous colleagues still working in Gaza, to those from UNWRA and ICRC, with whom we are working and who receive a lot of our funding, but also to many others.
I would also like to offer my sincere condolences to the families of those workers who have already been victims of this tragic episode.
The Commission has been spending quite a lot also on immediate humanitarian funds and we are ready to do more in the future.
What have these negotiations achieved? As the President-in-Office has said, they contained the major elements for the latest Security Council resolution, which then, a few days after the negotiations, was adopted with the abstention of the Americans. An immediate ceasefire, Egyptian guarantees to stop smuggling through the tunnels, opening of the crossings for humanitarian aid, including deployment of a force – possibly with international participation and/or the Palestinian Authority’s security forces – policing the 15-km-long Philadelphia corridor between Gaza and Egypt.
We understand that the Palestinian Authority has accepted this proposal and now Israel and Hamas are studying it. We think it is very important that very soon something works. My latest information is that everybody is working very closely on it and maybe in a few days we will really have such a ceasefire. I hope that this will be the case.
On mid-term perspectives, sadly both Israel and Hamas have initially rejected this UN Security Council resolution, but from these daily contacts I hope that an agreement can be achieved quite soon. It is important to say and recognise that Egypt has been playing a leading role in direct contacts with Hamas, and also that in this regard President Sarkozy’s visit to Syria, as well as the Turkish efforts, have been very important.
It gives cause for immense concern. We discussed it yesterday at a meeting with the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee on Development and those Members of the European Parliament who had been in Gaza at the weekend.
I also understand that the summit of the Arab countries could take place in Qatar at the end of this week. We aim, as this intense diplomatic activity shows, to support all relevant actors who have the leverage with Hamas to help deliver a sustainable solution as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 1860.
As soon as this ceasefire is agreed, we will have to think, probably in the form of a conference, how to formulate more concrete measures to alleviate the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian population in Gaza. However, we have to be clear in saying that whatever we do, it must not contribute to an endless cycle of destruction and reconstruction with no peace.
Under the right conditions I might come back to you and seek your help to contribute in a meaningful way to constructive efforts, as I have done in the past. You know that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is touring the region and hopefully he too can contribute to this final success that is absolutely necessary to getting this lasting ceasefire.
As a long-term perspective, we have to say that the current offensive clearly contributes to a weakening of trust between Palestinians and Israelis. Military operations can never bring a lasting peace; only a negotiated political agreement can do this. Dialogue should therefore resume both between Israelis and Palestinians and among Palestinians.
Once hostilities have stopped, I think it will be important to resume talks aimed at a comprehensive peace as soon as possible. Here we have to work with the new US administration to ensure it is able to support bilateral negotiations from the beginning. In this regard I welcome Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton’s commitments at her Senate hearing yesterday. We will insist that parties negotiate on substance, and not just on process, and that the Anapolis process comes to a successful conclusion. This crisis shows that a successful conclusion is more urgent than ever.
The question of Palestinian reconciliation will also be central. It is unlikely that Hamas will be eradicated by this operation. Possibly it will come out debilitated militarily, but strengthened politically. Hamas’s position that President Abbas’s term will end on 9 January is another issue which is closely linked to the reform of the PLO and of Fatah. To achieve lasting peace it is clear that a strong Palestinian Authority needs to speak for all Palestinians and that it needs to be committed to a two-state solution through peaceful means.
The conflict in Gaza also, unfortunately, has potential negative repercussions in terms of regional support for the peace process. Israel’s image with several pro-peace Arab regimes has been dented by the excessive suffering of the Gaza civilian population. Israel’s leaders and the Israeli population should understand how negative this is for their aspirations as a people to live in peace. We are their friends and must tell them that we are doing this. Israel therefore cannot afford to waste any time in reaching peace.
This is my first short, or not so short, analysis, and we will have to try to work in order to get this durable ceasefire in order then to be able to go on and get peace negotiations under way with a new American administration.
The President-in-Office of the Council has already mentioned the terrible statistics of the dead and injured, which get worse every day. There is increasing evidence of victims suffering from extreme burns, and aid agencies report that the population is suffering from acute shortages of food, fuel and medicine, not to mention the destruction of houses and infrastructure.
However, Israel has also suffered losses and has faced hundreds of rockets being fired into its territory by Hamas, targeting Israeli civilians. War, unfortunately, always produces immense human suffering, and this war is no exception. Therefore, beyond its immediate devastating impact, it pushes the prospect of peace much further away, undermines the Arab Peace Initiative and could potentially have a very negative impact on the stability of the whole region.
I should like to outline quickly the diplomatic activity that we have taken together to bring this conflict to an end, and then to look at the mid- and long-term challenges. We have been active from day one, which I think was important. We know that we are not the main player in the Middle East, but we were, and are, an important player. Therefore, in response to the outbreak of the crisis, the emergency meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Paris on 30 December 2008 was very important in developing proposals from the outset – the Paris Declaration – for bringing this conflict to an end, which we then used in our delegation and visit to the Middle East.
Here there are three elements. First and foremost, the Paris Declaration called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, including both an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel, but also an end to the Israeli military action. We called for a ceasefire to be accompanied by a permanent and normal opening of all border crossings, as provided by the agreement on movement and access in 2005. We expressed willingness to re-dispatch the EU Border Assistance Mission (BAM) to Rafah to enable its reopening, and we also indicated that we were willing to examine the possibility of extending assistance to other crossing points, provided that our security concerns were met.
Second, we stressed the urgent humanitarian needs, which we said had to be met. Here we urged the immediate opening of the crossing points to enable pressing medical assistance, fuel and food to be delivered to the Gaza Strip, to enable humanitarian workers to gain access and for the injured to be evacuated.
Third, we reiterated our position that there is no military solution to this Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that the peace process is the only way forward and that efforts have to be stepped up as soon as we find a durable ceasefire.
As you have heard, our mission was carried out in tandem with a visit by President Sarkozy, who had planned to make a trip to Syria and Lebanon and who then decided to visit Egypt and Israel to reinforce these efforts, still on the basis of our declaration of 30 December 2008. France is currently chairing the Security Council, so it was an important initiative."@en1
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