E.U. and U.S. Strategy Converge on Middle East

After E.U. High Representative Javier Solana visited Israel, Palestine and Lebanon, he conducted a meeting in Cairo on June 14th, during which he concluded that there were currently near identical approaches shared by E.U. and the U.S. concerning Middle Eastern problems. When Solana met with Lebanese President Michel Slaimen, he pointed out that “for the first time the United States and the EU shared the close positions”. Nearly simultaneous with Solana, U.S. Mideast Envoy George Mitchell also visited Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria.

After President Obama stepped into the White house, the U.S. administration started to open dialogues with former “opponent” countries. Mitchell’s trip to the numerous Middle Eastern countries served to reinforce America’s preference for a ‘talking’ policy regarding issues in the Middle East.

During Solana’s trip, he met with Lebanese President Michel Slaimen, Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh and, for the first time, Hezbollah MP Hussein Hajj Hassan. And Solana stated that the “lists of terrorist groups are not the same in every country”.

On the same day, U.S. Envoy Mitchell met Syrian President Bashar in Damascus. Mitchell was the first American high-ranking official to visit Damascus after four years of strained relations between the United States and Syria since 2005. Syria will play an important role in establishing peace in the Middle East, said Mitchell.

After the meeting, the U.S. Envoy to the Middle East told reporters that America will strive to seek peace between Syria and Israel, between Lebanon and Israel, and between the Palestinians and Israel, underlining the need for America and Syria to create suitable conditions for negotiations.

E.U. and American officials visited several Middle Eastern countries nearly at the same time, and also publicly contacted Hezbollah in both Lebanon and Syria; the Occident generally excludes both groups from international workings but visiting officials admitted that both play important roles in Middle East affairs.

It’s obvious that E.U. and America are working to persuade Middle Eastern countries to cooperate in order to establish suitable conditions for a new round of talks.

Past experience in the Middle East has proved that taking one side or isolating another cannot solve the issue thoroughly. Negotiations are necessary and everyone has to sit down and talk-some compliments and appeasements might be required to get them to the table.