Gareth Evans - Al—Hayat, 22 October 2006
 
 
BRUSSELS — With the recent Lebanese—Israeli and Palestinian—Israeli crises, a new global Middle East peace initiative is urgently needed to generate a final and comprehensive settlement of the Arab—Israeli conflict. As we are all acutely aware, the Middle East has been immersed in its worst crisis in years, with serious concern about developments in Iraq and Iran but the Arab—Israeli conflict still at its heart. So long as that conflict continues, everyone will be losers except the extremists throughout the world who prosper on the rage it continues to provoke.

After the last few months‘ chaos in Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories and Israel, the urgent need for a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace could not be more obvious. But the spark has to be somehow lit, and a serious new Middle East peace process started. Unfortunately, there is a continuing absence of the necessary political will to achieve this.

But there is also today broad international understanding of what is needed to ultimately resolve the outstanding, and closely inter—related, Israeli—Palestinian, Israeli—Lebanese and Israeli—Syrian issues. The outlines should be based on U.N. Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, the Arab League Initiative of 2002, the Clinton Parameters and the Roadmap proposed in 2003 by the Quartet (the U.S., the EU, Russia and the U.N.). The goal must be security and full recognition of the state of Israel within internationally recognised borders, an end to the occupation for the Palestinian people in a viable independent, sovereign state, and the return of lost land to Syria.

The International Crisis Group believes that such a peace process is possible. It should start by the mobilisation of an adequate political/diplomatic momentum in support for a comprehensive settlement, and a new peace process to achieve it. It can possibly involve an international conference to kick—start serious and detailed negotiations. The leadership role of the Quartet should be reinforced by greater participation from the Arab League and regional countries.

Nobody underestimates the intractability of the underlying issues or the intensity of feelings they provoke. But if the Arab—Israeli conflict, with all its terrible consequences, is ever to be resolved, there is a desperate need for fresh thinking and the injection of new political will replacing the present policy vacuum.

In the absence of a viable alternative provided to moderates in the region on both the Israeli and Arab sides, the political vacuum will keep on stemming the slide toward greater instability. With the prevailing moods in the region, and among the key international players, any move toward compromise will be extremely difficult. However, the extreme fragility of the situation, and the renewed willingness of leading Arab countries to find a new path to peace, offers a significant opportunity. New ideas can and should emerge and pushed forward towards a final comprehensive settlement of the Arab—Israeli conflict.

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* Gareth Evans is President and CEO of the International Crisis Group. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews)