De Villepin: Mid-East is facing once again ordeal of war
Regional-France, Politics, 4/14/2003

Egypt said: French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin Saturday said the Middle East once again facing the ordeal of war, with its accompanying privations, casualties, and feelings of injustice in a region already inflicted by suffering.

Addressing a meeting held by the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, the French foreign minister said France, convinced that there was an approach other than war for peacefully disarming Iraq, did everything it could to avoid it. It now expects that, with the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime, hope will very quickly flourish again. It is urgent, at a time when deep divisions, hatred, intolerance, the forces of terrorism and fundamentalism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are threatening the planet, that we should together build a peaceful world in which everyone has his rightful place and every culture is respected, he told the meeting attended by the chairman and members of the council.

De Villepin said in his speech "My purpose is to bring you a message of trust, France's trust in the wisdom and spirit of responsibility of the Arab and Muslim people." If we are to progress, we must then find the path back to peace and stability in the region. In the Middle East and beyond, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fuels every kind of tension. It troubles our societies everywhere. No country can ignore this crisis, born out of the reciprocal rejection of both peoples during forty years and maintained by the failure of the various peace processes, which no country can ignore.

The deadlock exacerbates the feelings of anger and injustice, frustration and despair. It intensifies the suffering and serves finally as an excuse for international terrorism.

Since the Intifada resumed in September 2000, the gulf has widened. In the occupied Palestinian territories, the crackdown has been harsh, and the impoverishment tragic. Indiscriminate terrorism has seriously shaken the partisans of peace in Israel. Yet, on either side, civil society continues, despite the deprivation and fear, to place hope in the future.

There has never been such unanimous agreement concerning the broad-line of a settlement. Security Council Resolution 1379, reasserting Resolutions 242 and 338 lays down the principle of two states living side by side in security. In Beirut in March 2002, the Arab world, at the instigation of Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah, solemnly pledged to normalize its relations with Israel once the occupation ceased, thus following the path opened by Egypt with the 1978 Camp David accords.

Israel, like all lawful sovereign states, has a right to security and recognition by its neighbors.

The Palestinians too, have a right to a sovereign, viable and democratic state. France was among the first to claim this for them twenty years ago.

The Palestinians, victims of what their collective memory recalls as the Nakba, the "disaster", have become a homeless people.

De Villepin said "Peace now is imperative. International law must be applied. We wish to settle this conflict together, with insistence on justice and responsibility. It is essential therefore to provide each camp with all the needed guarantees, taking into consideration the fears and concerns, in order to build a common future for all the region's inhabitants.

Europe, the United Nations, the United States, and Russia have joined together in the Quartet, whose roadmap plan sets out the main stages in the process. Let us step by step make the necessary choices together.

Stage one: prepare the bases of an agreement. The Quartet's roadmap must be rapidly communicated to each parties and published. Now that Abu Mazen has been named Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli cabinet has been installed, the conditions are ripe. The road map must be implemented by all sides without delay, the goal being a Palestinian state by 2005.

Stage two: stop the spiral of violence. Israelis and Palestinians must publicly reassert their choice of negotiation and peace, beginning with a joint truce declaration. This calming gesture will rekindle hope in all those who live in fear each day. France would, with other partners, be ready to participate by a presence on the ground.

Why could not the two parties directly express their will by mandating their governments to make peace within the prospect of a two-state co-existence? Why not lend an ear to the voters, who in a referendum could confirm the choice for peace and restore hope to the collective consciousness?

Stage three: ensure the conditions for peace. The Palestinian public services should be in a position to assume their responsibilities. In this task, they should benefit from the international community's backing, if necessary.

In exploring the possibilities of efficient technical support, France would like thought to be given, open-mindedly and without prejudice, to an international presence that would take up position with the consent of the parties without encroaching on their sovereign responsibilities.

Stage four: opening the paths to peace. France proposes hosting in Paris, after stage one of the Quarter's roadmap, an international conference for defining the framework needed for concluding, with the backing of the international community, an "honorable peace".

Stage five: proclamation of the Palestinian state. It would correspond to the end of phase two of the Quartet's roadmap. Our wish is that at this stage the Palestinian state, within provisional borders, should become a reality. We are ready to draw all the diplomatic consequences should implementation of the Quartet's plan lag behind schedule.

These steps signpost the itinerary set out by the Quartet and its roadmap. We feel it is necessary to underscore the choice of will through concrete acts, for the hopes raised must not be dashed once again. Each partner must display its unflinching determination. Let us not delude ourselves. The search for a solution requires mobilization on everyone's part".

On the Israeli side, de Villepin said, "it is clear for all to see: security can be achieved only through peace but peace will require tough concessions to be made. But despite the tragic events, the person on the other side should be accepted.

On the Palestinian side, renunciation of violence, which offers no way out, is more necessary than ever. The Palestinian Authority must be able to speak in the name of its people.

Lastly, all the Arab countries must accept Israel as one of the region's states; they must fully recognize this neighboring country by affording it guarantees of security and building peaceful, normal relations with it.

Peace must be comprehensive, embracing Syria and Lebanon as well. Is the Israeli presence on the Golan Heights still justified for security reasons? Lebanon, for its part, will recover its full independence and complete sovereignty within the framework of a comprehensive peace".

The French foreign minister said "the Middle East future must be built around a common challenge, that of peace. This holds true for the Near East; it holds true for Iraq. We observe the region's community of spirit-grief and pain cannot be separated. Iraq today is going through massive upheavals. It is a great challenge for this country, for the Arab world and for the international community.

We all know that Baghdad represents in the history and the Arab world's imagination an heir to the thousand-year-old Mesopotamian civilizations, the capital of the Abbasside empire and the center of the Arab science for centuries. This is indeed the country of Harun Al-Rashid, where Callimacus first experienced the wonder of seeing the handling gardens of Babylon.

We are bound by the future of Iraq. But first and foremost, of course, we are bound by the future of the Arab world as a whole. We must, however, address the emergency of the situation.

My thoughts are for the country's civilian population, its women, children and men mowed down by the war.

Right now, humanitarian action must mobilize everyone's efforts. Once the terrible period of war is over, Iraq will have to be made secure. Responsibility for this will lie primarily with the coalition countries.

Then will come the time for reconstruction-economic, certainly, but above all political.

The United Nations must play a central role, because only the UN can provide tomorrow's Iraqi authorities with the necessary legitimacy and mobilize the entire international community. Also because, when confronted with Iraq's ordeal, we must be extremely demanding in terms of lucidity, efficacy and solidarity. Those are the notions which will continue govern France's position".

The Iraqi people, who have experienced nothing but war and oppression for over thirty years, need to live lastingly at peace with itself and its neighbors.

Let us be careful always to put this great people's need for respect, pride, honour and hope on the agenda for Iraq's reconstruction. With the international community, and the Arab League, let us look to the future. We have three top priorities.

First : As soon as circumstances permit, to set up sovereignty, independent and stable national institutions, respectful of human rights and exclusively concerned with the situation of all Iraqis.

This legal and institutional reform should be entrusted to the Iraqis themselves. It is necessary therefore to preserve Iraq's unity and territorial integrity and enable the country to regain control over the whole of its territory.

Second : To determine the terms for a peaceful co-existence of the entire population. Iraqis, in all their diversity of origin and belief, should be represented by sovereign institutions.

The return of the inhabitants of Iraqi Kurdistan within the national entity must go hand-in-hand with the definition of a suitable status of autonomy.

The new authorities in Baghdad must therefore ensure freedom of worship for all Iraqis, whatever their religious persuasion, affording them both respect and security.

Third : It will be essential to assist the Iraqi authorities in quickly improving the whole population's economic situation. All of Iraq's resources will have to be mobilized for the country's development and reconstruction, for the benefit of the Iraqi people. More particularly, it is important that Iraq's oil wealth should, under a transparent system, benefit all Iraqis.

How can these objectives be achieved?

First, we must together investigate and devise arrangements to avoid debt and war damage reparations compromising the country's development".

The French minister went on to say "we shall work together to reinsert Iraq into its regional environment and into the international community.

All of Iraq's neighbors without exception will have a role to play in this reconciliation.

It is important that the Iraqi authorities should rapidly demonstrate their willingness to restore peaceful relations with these states, in a spirit of openness, transparency and reconciliation.

The truth will have to be thought and revealed concerning war prisoners and those reported missing in action from the past twenty years.

At the end, de Villepin said "The Middle East can become an incredibly rich tapestry of peoples and cultures, a positive image of the common destiny that increasingly binds together all human beings and all their histories"

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