LOC22:46
19:46 GMT
PARIS, Nov 22 (KUNA) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday warned
that the impasse in the Middle East peace process was having a wide-ranging
impact on the region and was not just affecting Israelis and Palestinians.
Speaking to participants who were attending the 40 anniversary celebrations
for the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce, the French leader vowed that his
country would do everything to push talks forward between the protagonists
because the obstacles to peace were also slowing down development in the
region as a whole.
Sarkozy, who was the main sponsor behind the troubled Union for the
Mediterranean (UM) project, also said that he would not be discouraged and he
would not give up on his ambition to create the far-reaching UM, which was
launched here in 2007.
A proposed summit of the UM leaders was postponed earlier in November for
the second time this year because of the tensions between Israel and Arab
nations who are frustrated with Israels hard-line policies, particularly on
the continuation of settlement building in Jerusalem and other occupied
Palestinian territories.
The UM was supposed to meet this week in Barcelona but the co-presidency,
France and Egypt, decided to call this off after consultations with members.
"France will not renounce the Union for the Mediterranean project," Sarkozy
told the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce participants at a ceremony at the
Elysee Palace.
France will keep its "commitment ... despite the great difficulties linked
to the regional, political situation," he remarked.
The French President pointed out that the ambitions UM project is "a major
element" of French foreign policy and France has, indeed, championed the idea
of over 40 nations, including Israel, working together to spur development and
economic wellbeing in the region, in addition to establishing ties in a number
of other areas.
Yet Sarkozy recognized that one of the main obstacles to the UM is the
absence of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian process, which is bogged down
despite US and European encouragement to move forward.
Many of the problems stem from Israels refusal to halt illegal
settlement-building and Palestinians say they cannot move into other areas of
talks until this explosive issue is resolved.
Similar unhappiness with Israel also torpedoed the predecessor of the UM,
the Barcelona Process, during the 1990s.
"The question of the Middle East is naturally a concern for us all,"
Sarkozy told his Franco-Arab audience.
"The blockage in the peace process, which I want to denounce, because this
blockage is preventing not only the two peoples ... from living side-by-side
normally in peace and security, but above all is slowing development efforts
for the whole region," he cautioned.
France will continue to "make all efforts to restart negotiations," he
affirmed, calling for a rethinking of the approach or the method to tackling
this problem.
He said that he would like to see a "more collective, consultative, rapid
and more wilful approach." (end)
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