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Mediterranean
union wants to rid Mideast of WMD
The leaders of 43 nations from Europe, the Middle East and
North Africa have launched a Union for the Mediterranean, a brainchild of
French President Nicolas Sarkozy that aims to improve cooperation in the region
with practical projects that parallel efforts toward Mideast peace.
Sarkozy's ambitious plan overlaps with European Union
projects already in progress, and it was melded into EU efforts and expanded to
include 27 members of the EU, not just those on the Mediterranean coast. Nearly
all of the 43 nations sent a president or prime minister to the summit. Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi objected to the idea and refused to come.
Sarkozy reveled at having brought so many leaders to the
same table for the first time.
"We dreamed about a Union for the Mediterranean, and
now it is a reality," Sarkozy said in closing the summit in a palace
abutting the River Seine. He called it an "extremely moving, very
important moment."
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, co-presiding at the summit
with Sarkozy, called on the new union to tackle reducing the wealth
"gap" between north and south, and cited other southern Mediterranean
"challenges" as education, food safety, health and social welfare.
He said the union has better chances of success than a
previous cooperation process launched in Barcelona in 1995 because the new body
focuses on practical projects.
While trying to unify the region, the summit laid bare the
deep divisions that still slice through it and highlighted how hard it will be
to parlay the meeting's goodwill and words into real progress. Syria's
president refused to shake the Israeli prime minister's hand, and Morocco's
king snubbed the meeting attended by the president of rival Algeria.
In a final declaration, Israel, Syria and the Palestinians
along with countries across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa agreed to
"pursue a mutually and effectively verifiable Middle East Zone free of
weapons of mass destruction."
The summit declaration also condemned "terrorism in all
its forms" and announced six major projects, from a common university and
easier travel visas for students to depolluting the Mediterranean sea and
promoting solar power.
It also spoke of democratic principles, human rights and
fundamental freedoms — values Western critics have accused such union members
as Syria of violating.
The countries committed to "consider practical steps to
prevent the proliferation" of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and
their delivery systems. It was unclear, however, how the signatories — who
included Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Syrian President Bashar Assad —
would enforce the pledge.
Israel is widely believed to have a stockpile of nuclear
weapons but neither confirms nor denies it has them — an ambiguity meant to
scare potential enemies from considering an annihilating attack while denying
them the rationale for developing their own nuclear deterrent.
Recently, tensions between Israel and arch enemy Iran have
risen over Tehran's nuclear program. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
often spoken of wiping Israel off the map. And Israel and ally the United
States believe Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at producing nuclear weapons,
despite Iran's insistence it is for producing nuclear energy.
Syria, another Israeli foe, may also have nuclear ambitions.
Last year, Israeli jets destroyed what U.S. intelligence officials said was
believed to be a partially built nuclear reactor in Syria, though Syrian
officials said it was part of a non-nuclear military program.
Assad sat out Olmert's speech at the summit in an apparent
rebuff just hours after Ehud Olmert urged Damascus to open direct peace talks,
Israeli officials said. Assad also declined to shake hands with Olmert.
"We are not seeking symbols," Assad said on French
television, adding he avoided a handshake with Olmert because the two nations
are still only in indirect peace talks.
There was no official Israeli reaction to the apparent snub.
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Europe