Facing up to 'unilateralist overdrive'

Does Europe's mutiny against Washington's "simplistic" foreign policy offer a new window of opportunity for the Arabs? Dina Ezzat and Iason Athanasiadis see the signs
Concerns over the US abusing its "war against terrorism" in order to reshape the Middle East by its own measure are being assertively voiced -- and, for once, the more vocal opposition has come from the Europeans rather than the Arab world. According to Arab League sources, almost every European official or parliamentarian who has recently met with the League's secretary-general, Amr Moussa, has commented on the heavy-handed US approach to foreign policy, particularly in relation to the Middle East. Talk about US bias towards Israel has become a matter of course, as have discussions over the need to renegotiate the sanctions on Iraq.
This growing awareness of Arab-EU understanding is not only to be found at the Arab League. The same sentiment has surfaced in several Arab capitals from Cairo to Damascus, and even Baghdad. So when European Union Commissioner Chris Patten called the US "absolutist and simplistic" on foreign policy and warned against appeasing Washington as it goes into "unilateralist overdrive," his remarks were highly welcomed in official Arab quarters. Patten's remarks came a day after French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine labelled Ariel Sharon's policies in the occupied territories "pure repression" and stated that Europe "is threatened today by a new simplism which consists in reducing everything to the war on terrorism." Vedrine criticised the US's unilateralist policy, which he said it carries out "without consulting anyone, based on [its] interpretation and on [its] interests."
Such statements must have been music to ears of the Arab League's Moussa. Dismissing Washington's designated "axis of evil," Moussa said that, "the evil that we see is the occupation and aggression conducted by Israel against the Palestinian people." In talks with Moussa and top Egyptian officials in Cairo yesterday, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer made it unequivocally clear that Europe is not going to take a back seat while the US takes the destiny of the Middle East in its own hands.
The Bush administration's pre-11 September announcement of its disengagement from the Middle East peace process, the increasing escalation of violence in the occupied territories and the EU's continuing status as the largest non-military donor to the region have all led the Union to reappraise its role on the political front. The EU disperses an average of $750 million in financial aid and is the biggest economic partner for Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. As Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel put it last week, "the EU does not want to play an economic role only, but also a political one."
The ongoing tension over the peace process is another example of a resurfacing "Atlantic drift." At a time of trans-Atlantic frictions over trade, environmental issues and foreign policy, the current clash between the two blocs is unprecedented in scale for recent years.
According to Arab League sources, Moussa has been vehement in underlining the "grave consequences of any potential US attack against Iraq." Moussa, sources say, put it in black and white: if the US is going to maintain its bias towards Israel, attack Iraq and threaten Iran, the whole region is likely to combust. European nations cannot confine themselves to issuing statements of opposition to the American policy.
Indeed, the EU has done little since the 1980 Venice Declaration, which recognised the Palestinians' right to self-determination, called for an end to the Israeli occupation and condemned Jewish settlements built on occupied land and legislation annexing Jerusalem. Since then, and until recognising the Palestinian right to a state in 1999, the EU has remained sidelined in the ongoing peace negotiations -- much to the delight of the Israelis.
This seems to be changing. The EU is taking some steps towards reengagement. A French blueprint for Middle East peace, calling for Palestinian elections and the creation of a Palestinian state, was broadly endorsed. The creation of a new state, to be "immediately recognised by Israel and admitted to the United Nations" must be the "starting point of a negotiating process" for a Mideast peace accord, Vedrine told his EU colleagues. This initiative was shrugged off by the US as something that could distract attention from the priority of "ending violence in the region."
The Italians are proposing another initiative to hold a UN-sponsored peace conference on the Middle East with the presence of the US, Russia, the EU and all key regional players. The US is also opposed.
"We have to continue to work with Iraq and Iran," commented Jose Piquet, the foreign minister of Spain, which currently holds the EU's rotating chair. "Whatever the outcome, the United States would have to weigh possible changes in its alignments with many other countries," French Defence Minister Alan Richard stated. And Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy supremo, weighed in saying, "In this globalised world, coalition- building is absolutely essential" -- an unmistakeable rebuke for the US's isolationism and unilateralism.
Arab states will have to work on supporting such initiatives. "So far it seems that the Europeans are working hard, while Arab states are not giving much attention to the matter," one Cairo-based Palestinian diplomatic source noted. The next Arab foreign ministers meeting, due to take place in the Arab League on 9 March, should offer an opportunity for a common and clear stand about where the Arab countries would like to go next. "The problem is that almost each Arab country has a different view about what needs to be done next," said the Palestinian source. Should the Arab foreign ministers meeting fail to formulate such a common stance, then it is the job of the Arab summit, due to convene in Beirut late next month, to do so.
Of the three states that Bush mentioned in his State of the Union address, Iraq is the most likely candidate for US targeting in the near future. Thus, it was no bombshell when news came through last week that an apprehensive Iraqi leadership had been making overtures to the EU. Aside from Britain, which has come under fire in EU circles for continuing to participate in flights over the northern and southern Iraqi no-fly zones, other EU countries, with France at the helm, have pursued a more moderate stance and championed a resolution to the dispute through the resumption of trade and negotiations.
The Europeans have pledged their support for the Arab League's efforts to revive talks between Iraq and the UN over the return of arms inspectors to Iraq and the gradual lifting of sanctions. "We must admit that this time the Europeans are being supportive. They cannot face up to US tyranny, but at least they are not offering the US the carte blanche that it wants to attack Iraq," commented one Iraqi diplomatic source.
Indeed, Germany's Deputy Foreign Minister Ludger Voemer has gone on the record as saying: "We Europeans warn against [targeting Iraq]. There is no indication, no proof that Iraq is involved in the terrorism we have been talking about for the last few months ... this terror argument cannot be used to legitimise old enmities." Stressing this point, Voemer suggested that Washington should not try to tar Baghdad with charges of terrorism "in order to settle old scores."
Any potential action against Iran -- be it military or otherwise -- is also opposed by Arab and EU countries alike. On Tuesday in Turkey, on the fringe of an OIC-EU dialogue of civilisations conference, the Arab League secretary- general, along with a group of Arab and EU foreign ministers, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi to emphasise their opposition to the Washington line on Tehran's involvement in sponsoring terror.
In their upcoming meeting in Brussels on 18 February, foreign ministers of the European Union will try to reach a consensus on what to do to prevent the US from getting its way in what they perceive as a destructive policy to peace and stability in the Middle East and the European back yard.
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