If DEBKA is optimistic, could there be a chance for peace?
Debka on the summit with Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, the newly-elected Palestinian Authority chairman, Mahmoud Abbas – Abu Mazen, Jordan’s King Abdullah and their….host President Hosni Mubarak:
[T]he Sharm summit stood out as a landmark with two far-reaching implications:
1. A new Middle East Club of Four came into being. With a good measure of audacity and inventiveness, this bloc could dictate the next steps towards lifting the Israel-Palestinian dispute out of its stalemate – or even play a role in other conflicts, such as Lebanon and Iraq. Mubarak hinted as much in his closing speech when he urged Israel to embrace Syria and Lebanon in its peace diplomacy. This call was taken as a token response to a request from Syrian president Bashar Assad to raise the Syrian issue at the summit. In fact, the Egyptian ruler was already beginning to weave other regional issues in with the conflict on the table.
2. The Middle East Club of Four will need to pace itself against that of the absent nations – Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, all the Gulf emirates and even East Africa. Interestingly, by coming together alone, the four leaders cut themselves off from big power or even regional intervention. If the group endures long enough, it might even solidify into a distinct Egyptian-Israeli-Jordanian-Palestinian military-intelligence pact. A candidate for fifth member might be Iraq, which might find useful alternative export routes for its oil through Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba and Israel’s Mediterranean ports of Haifa or Ashkelon.
Whether or not the plain talk of George Bush and possible presidential aspirant Condi Rice accounts for the signs of increased chances for peace that we see, plain talk is infinitely to be preferred to its opponent — which advances nothing but misunderstanding.
HT: Roger Simon.