ID :
123234
Thu, 05/20/2010 - 15:17
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Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/123234
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EU Special Representative lauds UAE role for Middle East Peace Process
Abu Dhabi, May 20, 2010 (WAM)- European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, H.E Ambassador Marc Otte has highly commended the role of United Arab Emirates in bringing peace and creating favourable environment in the Middle East in context with the Palestinian issue.
"I am here to actually recognise the positive role played by UAE in creating favourable environment, and in terms of political and humanitarian support to Palestinian Authority, UAE role is beyond that. It is very appreciative political role, their interaction with the quartet and with the Arab league is very creditable ", he said during his talk with a group of journalists here at the residence of Spain Ambassador on Wednesday. He was flanked by Ambassador of Spain H.E Gonzalo de Benito and Head of Delegation of European Union H.E Luigi Narbone.
Ambassador Marc Otte arrived in Abu Dhabi on the last leg of his three-nation tour of the Gulf seeking support for the Middle East peace process to succeed the indirect negotiations between Israel and Palestinians.
During his tour he also visited Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before arriving to UAE capital, where he held talks with Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, over Middle East peace process, European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ties in particular relations with United Arab Emirates and explored possibilities to enhance them in various fields for mutual benefits.
"The role of UAE is all ready there, it’s very positive and practical. A lot of resources to help Palestinians, the housing projects in Gaza and other humanitarian assistance and we discussed this with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs how we can work together to protect the interest of the Arab population of Jerusalem, to solve the problems faced by refugees and raise their health and education standards and how to create stability" About the success of his tour to the region he said: "In view of the quality of interaction with the three countries I can say that it was a very successful visit because it has given me lots of ideas and I will give my feedback back to my European bosses and governments".
"We see a lot of potential for more cooperation between EU, UAE and GCC on this issue", he added.
"We are working very closely with the Americans on what conditions we can create better atmosphere and move on the right direction" He said that ''we have no choice than to engage on the Palestine issue otherwise we will be marginalised, how we can contribute to greater extent after the agreement is signed and make sure that these recommendations are implemented, this situation creates huge opportunity for the region.
He said that purpose of the indirect talks and American mediation is to create more trust and create more common ground to make parties to negotiate and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is very good negotiator and we are working along with them to move the parties on the right direction.
He said that the problem of Jerusalem is due to lack of trust and for that you have to make good will it is like embarking on a train to your destination without ticket. Now you know the destination but there is no train and lots of obstacles on the road.
To a question about settlement activities by Israel and negotiations he said " that United States started talks to freeze settlements for Israel and Arab countries to make positive gestures in normalisation of relations with Israel ....proximity talks backed by Arab league but I think you cannot negotiate on state of the territory when one party is constantly reducing the size of state , we have to stop a little bit to talk about what will be the size of the state in terms of its institutions, what is a state by any definition is a territory which has a legitimate government have control over the people and the natural resources. ...... We have to stop fooling the Palestinian".
To another question he said we have to take into consideration the political dimensions in resolving the Palestinian issue with our efforts we have created a sense of urgency, this issue has become the national interest of United States and European Union as well and that is why we are working to resolve this issue to help bring peace in the Middle East.
"We have to look into the issue in total, it is not the issue of Jerusalem, or refugees, Palestinians will have boarder with Israel, Jordan, with Egypt and Syria, so we have to take into account all the parties concerned to reach at a viable solution to this issue".
He said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies at the heart of the problems in the region as a whole and must be resolved in order to bring about a comprehensive Middle East peace process, this is vital for us as well. – Emirates News Agency, WAM
"I am here to actually recognise the positive role played by UAE in creating favourable environment, and in terms of political and humanitarian support to Palestinian Authority, UAE role is beyond that. It is very appreciative political role, their interaction with the quartet and with the Arab league is very creditable ", he said during his talk with a group of journalists here at the residence of Spain Ambassador on Wednesday. He was flanked by Ambassador of Spain H.E Gonzalo de Benito and Head of Delegation of European Union H.E Luigi Narbone.
Ambassador Marc Otte arrived in Abu Dhabi on the last leg of his three-nation tour of the Gulf seeking support for the Middle East peace process to succeed the indirect negotiations between Israel and Palestinians.
During his tour he also visited Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before arriving to UAE capital, where he held talks with Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, over Middle East peace process, European Union (EU) and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ties in particular relations with United Arab Emirates and explored possibilities to enhance them in various fields for mutual benefits.
"The role of UAE is all ready there, it’s very positive and practical. A lot of resources to help Palestinians, the housing projects in Gaza and other humanitarian assistance and we discussed this with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs how we can work together to protect the interest of the Arab population of Jerusalem, to solve the problems faced by refugees and raise their health and education standards and how to create stability" About the success of his tour to the region he said: "In view of the quality of interaction with the three countries I can say that it was a very successful visit because it has given me lots of ideas and I will give my feedback back to my European bosses and governments".
"We see a lot of potential for more cooperation between EU, UAE and GCC on this issue", he added.
"We are working very closely with the Americans on what conditions we can create better atmosphere and move on the right direction" He said that ''we have no choice than to engage on the Palestine issue otherwise we will be marginalised, how we can contribute to greater extent after the agreement is signed and make sure that these recommendations are implemented, this situation creates huge opportunity for the region.
He said that purpose of the indirect talks and American mediation is to create more trust and create more common ground to make parties to negotiate and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell is very good negotiator and we are working along with them to move the parties on the right direction.
He said that the problem of Jerusalem is due to lack of trust and for that you have to make good will it is like embarking on a train to your destination without ticket. Now you know the destination but there is no train and lots of obstacles on the road.
To a question about settlement activities by Israel and negotiations he said " that United States started talks to freeze settlements for Israel and Arab countries to make positive gestures in normalisation of relations with Israel ....proximity talks backed by Arab league but I think you cannot negotiate on state of the territory when one party is constantly reducing the size of state , we have to stop a little bit to talk about what will be the size of the state in terms of its institutions, what is a state by any definition is a territory which has a legitimate government have control over the people and the natural resources. ...... We have to stop fooling the Palestinian".
To another question he said we have to take into consideration the political dimensions in resolving the Palestinian issue with our efforts we have created a sense of urgency, this issue has become the national interest of United States and European Union as well and that is why we are working to resolve this issue to help bring peace in the Middle East.
"We have to look into the issue in total, it is not the issue of Jerusalem, or refugees, Palestinians will have boarder with Israel, Jordan, with Egypt and Syria, so we have to take into account all the parties concerned to reach at a viable solution to this issue".
He said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lies at the heart of the problems in the region as a whole and must be resolved in order to bring about a comprehensive Middle East peace process, this is vital for us as well. – Emirates News Agency, WAM
