Syria comes in from cold on day rich in political gestures

Published on Sunday 13 July 2008 22:13

NICOLAS Sarkozy, the French president, launched a 43-nation union for the Mediterranean yesterday, with a plea for Middle Eastern countries to emulate Europe's model of reconciliation and integration.

The inaugural summit, at the Grand Palais in Paris, sealed a new dtente between Syria and Europe, with the Syrian and Israeli leaders also sitting at the same table for the first time.

But there was no handshake, and Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, appeared to go out of his way to avoid Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, hiding his face behind his arm as he walked past where the Israeli leader was standing.

In his keynote speech, Mr Sarkozy said: "Everyone will have to make an effort, as the Europeans did, to put an end to the deadly spiral of war and violence that, century after century, repeatedly brought barbarity to the heart of civilisation."

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian leader and co-president of the summit, told the assembly they must work together to meet the challenges of food, education and health for their growing populations.

On a day rich in political gestures, Mr Sarkozy hosted talks with Mr Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, capped with an effusive triple handshake.

"The goal of this summit for the Mediterranean, of this union for the Mediterranean, is that we learn to love each other instead of continuing to hate each other and wage war," Mr Sarkozy said.

Mr Olmert, keen to talk up peace prospects as he clings to office in the face of corruption allegations, told reporters: "It seems to me we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today."

For Mr Assad, the summit signalled a spectacular emergence from isolation in the West, three years after the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, which many feel was orchestrated from Syria.

The red-carpet treatment was partly a reward for Syria's backing for a Qatar-brokered peace deal that pulled Lebanon back from the brink of civil war in May, and for starting indirect peace talks with Israel with the help of Turkish mediation.

Officials resolved the last outstanding disputes on the communiqu just as the summit opened, subject to a final sign-off by Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas. The text called for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In another compromise, the Arab League will not receive formal observer status but will be invited to meetings of the EU-Mediterranean partnership.

Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, identified climate change, the environment, access to water and energy, migration and dialogue between civilisations as key areas for co-operation.

The new organisation aims to pursue practical projects with EU and private-sector funding, such as cleaning up the Mediterranean Sea, using North Africa's plentiful sunshine to generate solar power and building road and sea highways.

But the summit, a diplomatic success for Mr Sarkozy, who also holds the EU's rotating presidency, may be richer in symbolism than substance, at least to start with.

Details such as the location and powers of its secretariat remain to be resolved, and the Middle East conflicts that bedevilled past EU-Mediterranean co-operation loom large.

However, Mr Sarkozy was able to boast that nearly all the leaders of the southern Mediterranean region were there, while only one attended a 2005 Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona.