The next president of the European Union had fruitful talks in Cairo, Dina Ezzat reports Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the prime minister of Spain, was in Cairo this week for talks on bilateral relations as well as relations between Spain, in its capacity as the chair of the European Union starting January, and the Arab League. Zapatero was very warmly welcomed. On Tuesday President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif offered their hospitality. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also gave a grand welcome to the visiting Spanish dignitary. During his talks with Egyptian and Arab League officials, Zapatero argued the need to intensify efforts to promote Middle East peace despite the difficulties. "We have to keep the hopes up," he said following talks with Nazif. Upon his meeting with Moussa at the headquarters of the Arab League, Zapatero stressed that Middle East peace is essential for regional stability, not just in this region and the Mediterranean area but beyond. "Today we have to live up to our responsibility of taking the necessary positive steps to restart the Palestinian-Israeli peace process," Zapatero said at the Arab League. This process, he added, should lead to "the establishment of a Palestinian state within a reasonable time frame". To the positive nods of Moussa, Zapatero asserted that the revival of the peace process should take into consideration the "parameters of the Arab peace initiative which provides some fundamental basis to secure progress." A French diplomatic source told Al-Ahram Weekly that in his capacity as the next chair of the European Union, Zapatero has promised Paris to promote the initiative of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to hold a new Middle East peace conference, possibly in the French capital. The French proposal was discussed by Sarkozy with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also discussed the proposal during a recent visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. The aim of the French initiative is to overcome the current hurdles obstructing the American attempt to get Israel to suspend illegal Israeli settlement construction in occupied Palestinian territories. The idea is to get all the parties to meet and agree in principal on the shape, not specifics, of the final status solution to allow the talks to restart without the settlement freeze condition that Palestinians and other Arabs have put. However, the little that this support has garnered failed to make the issue a central item on the agenda of the Zapatero talks in Cairo. According to sources, however, Zapatero promised that the European Union will be actively engaged in promoting all efforts aiming at giving a push to Middle East peace. On another front, especially during his talks at the Arab League, Zapatero seemed keen to promote the joint Spanish-Turkish initiative for a dialogue of civilisations. Moussa was keen, as he said, to work with the Spanish guest on this front but neither offered details on the way forward. And during their talks Nazif and Zapatero agreed to step up bilateral cooperation especially in energy, infrastructure and tourism.
