Gloom in Athens over early peace in Middle East
Greek officials yesterday renewed their calls on Israel to pull out of the Palestinian territory on the West Bank in accordance with the resolution taken by the UN Security Council last Saturday. They also expressed concern at the possibility of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where scores of Palestinian fighters are besieged by the Israeli military, being stormed. «Yesterday, I was able to speak with (Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon) Peres and he assured me the church would not be damaged nor the people inside it harmed,» Foreign Minister George Papandreou said. Prime Minister Costas Simitis met with his Danish counterpart, Anders-Fogh Rasmussen, who was on a one-day visit to Athens in light of his country’s taking over the EU’s rotating presidency in June. «I believe that there must be a general movement to press Israel on adopting this (UN) resolution for the restoration of peace,» Simitis said. His visitor also said that Israeli troops should pull out of the Palestinian territory, adding, «Mr Arafat has not done what he could and should do to combat terrorism. But on the other hand, Mr Arafat is the only Palestinian leader to establish contact with.» Papandreou yesterday briefed Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on developments in the Middle East, following his visit to Egypt and the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg on Wednesday. The briefing came as the Israeli government prevented a senior EU delegation from visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is under military siege in Ramallah, and before US President George W. Bush called on the Israelis to pull their forces back and announced that Secretary of State Colin Powell will visit the region next week. Papandreou expressed Greece’s alarm at developments and his concern at the difficulty of a solution being found in the foreseeable future. «It is difficult for the two sides to get out of the crisis in this climate of bitterness and suspicion. Only the intervention of the international community and the enforcement of a solution will be able to ease the crisis. This will take a long time,» Papandreou said. He also expressed fear that the Arab world would grow more radical and that this could lead to a clash of civilizations, which, he said, would be tragic for the World. Papandreou said that it was imperative that diplomatic contacts continue with the USA, Russia and the Arab world, in order to ensure that the UN Security Council resolution calling for Israel’s military withdrawal from the West Bank be achieved. «Greece will continue with its initiatives, but things are not easy,» he said. He added that a group of Greek MPs was in Israel and that Greece had expressed its severe protest at the expulsion of a Greek group of doctors «that we have sent in the framework of humanitarian aid.» Papandreou also said that, despite the thinking of the majority in Israel, Arafat «cannot be treated as a terrorist. He is the one with whom the Israeli government will have to talk.»
