Israeli-Arab conflict has disastrous consequences on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, Speaker

Speaker of the Moroccan House of Representative (lower parliament chamber), Abdelouahed Radi, stated, in Rome Monday, that the Israeli-Arab conflict has disastrous consequences on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.

At a meeting on "the role of Parliaments and of civil societies for a better Euro-Mediterranean cooperation," organised by the Mediterranean Observatory and the Italian Foreign Affairs Ministry, Radi said the conflict "causes considerable human and material losses for protagonists and nourishes directly or indirectly other zones of violence and confrontation in the world."

"Oslo accords and the peace policy of Isaac Rabin and Yasser Arafat in the Middle East led us to believe that the Mediterranean region would enter a new historic phase of reconciliation, peace and cooperation," noted Radi.

The Barcelona process, he went on, arose in this climate of optimism in the prospect of making the Mediterranean an area of peace, security, stability and shared prosperity through the creation of a free trade zone in 2010 and a space of dialogue between cultures, civilizations and religions in a spirit of tolerance, openness and co-existence.

"Our Euro-Mediterranean region needs more than ever a deep dialogue (É) between well-intentioned people and, in particular, between parliamentarians and representatives of the civil society to back the positive action of governments," he said.

Radi voiced hope that the Mediterranean region will not turn into an area of permanent tension, noting that this goal can be achieved because the Mediterranean is the cradle of civilizations and universal values.