Spain floats idea of Madrid peace summit
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos offers to host another peace summit in Madrid, similar to 1991 conference there which lead to Oslo accords, peace with Jordan. ‘Perhaps it's time for interested parties to meet again, to reaffirm their commitment to a comprehensive solution,’ Moratinos says
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos offered to host another peace summit in Madrid, similar to the conference held there in 1991 which lead to the Oslo accords and peace with Jordan.
Moratinos suggested that contrary to the original Madrid conference, the Quartet of Middle East mediators be expanded to include new countries.
"Perhaps it would be timely for all the interested parties to meet again, at the same level as in 1991, to reaffirm their commitment to a comprehensive solution and to the basic principles on which that should be based," he told Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published Wednesday.
‘Futility of military solutions’
Moratinos said the war between Israel and Hizbullah this summer showed the futility of seeking military solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict or of trying to impose solutions unilaterally.
"At this stage the important thing is not to invent new solutions but to have the courage, the historic generosity and the political will to apply the formulas ... which have already been examined to a very large extent in the course of previous negotiations, such as Camp David and Taba," he added.
On the Quartet, which comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, Moratinos said: "(It) could incorporate the added value of some countries which are key to the region."
The European Union and the Arab League, seeing an opportunity after the Lebanon war, have floated several proposals for reviving Middle East peace negotiations.
The Madrid peace conference of 1991 brought together former US President George Bush, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and foreign ministers from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
The conference was based on the principle that Israel should give up occupied land in return for peace with its Arab neighbors, as had already happened between Israel and Egypt.
It led to a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994 and a series of high-level talks between Israel and Syria, which came close to an agreement in 2000.
Reuters contributed to the report.
