Tag: Middle East

The significant participation of women in the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa challenges both local dictators and Western stereotypes, writes author and social critic Naomi Wolf.

US President Barack Obama could turn to foreign policy as a way to claw back popularity after his mid-term election setback, which has left him weakened in domestic politics, Reuters writes in an analysis piece.

Internal identity complexes explain Turkey's actions on the world stage, writes Shlomo Ben-Ami, a former Israeli foreign minister and current vice-president of the Toledo International Centre for Peace.

Turkey will not accept any new framework of relations to the EU except full membership, Turkish President Abdullah Gül told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Israel has downgraded the level of meetings with a group of fifteen visiting MEPs as a result of their plan to hold talks tomorrow (27 May) in the Gaza strip, EurActiv has learned. Israel refuses to permit foreign officials to enter Gaza, explaining that such moves serve to legitimise Hamas.

For Israelis EU membership is a dream: a dream that may come true one day, Gadi Baltiansky of 'H.L. Education for Peace Ltd.', director-general of the Geneva Initiative for Israel, told EurActiv Slovakia in an interview.

Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia's minister of foreign affairs, met Israeli and Palestinian leaders of the Geneva Initiative, a think-tank, ahead of a tour of the region. EurActiv Slovakia reports.

The European Union's new foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, will travel to the Middle East early next year, putting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict high on the EU's agenda.

While Germany successfully managed its dual presidency of the European Union and G8 in 2007, a year later the country stands accused of making weak and contradictory commitments on many issues, particularly foreign and social policies, write Claire Demesmay and Hans Stark in a March paper for the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

According to a recent survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Turks represent the largest section of Middle-East citizens who consider the US as the greatest threat to their lives, liberty and cultural values, despite Turkey being a NATO ally and a country touted as the type of secular, multi-party democracy that America should foster in the Middle East.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso will meet US President George W. Bush on a visit to Washington on 8 January 2007. The role of the 'quartet' (the EU, the US, the UN and Russia) in the Middle East, as well as the revival of the Doha Trade Round, will be among the topics discussed.

Boosted by a strong European troop presence in Lebanon, Javier Solana wants to push for a return to the pre-1967 war borders.

3,000 Italian troops pledged for UN peacekeeping force - Italy puts pressure on EU neighbours to clarify commitments.

EU foreign ministers will engage in an internal war of words in the quest for a united voice for the battling parties in Lebanon.   

France, Germany, Italy and Greece have signaled interest in joining a peace force. Solana sees European involvement as a 'real possibility'  

The EU's foreign ministers will meet on 17 July 2006 to review the grim situation in the Middle East and to decide on further EU action to help resolve the crisis.

The UN, US, EU and Russia have laid down the details of an emergency plan agreed earlier in May that will see direct payments bypassing the Palestinian government to cover basic healthcare needs.

The EU will send police experts to the Gaza strip, where they will monitor the Rafah border crossing between the Palestinian territory and Egypt, and train the Palestinian police force.

The EU has a major interest in the reform process of its neighbours, writes Fraser Cameron, director of studies at the European Policy Centre (EPC), in the Turkish Policy Quarterly. However, the EU is not entitled to “impose” the ground rules of political, economic and social behavior that it requires from member countries upon its southern neighbors the way it is able to upon its European neighbors and potential member countries. The EU’s “sticks and carrots” are insufficient to motivate national authorities to implement reforms that weaken their own power status. This article considers the importance of the region for the EU, assesses the achievements of the Barcelona Process, evaluates present EU policies towards the region, ask s whether democracy is possible in the region and examines the prospects for EU-U.S. cooperation in the wider Middle East. The author suggests a number of recommendations for EU action although it is recognized that progress will depend on decisions made by the countries in the region themselves.

Following Yasser Arafat's death EU representatives have expressed a strong commitment to pursue efforts towards the creation of a Palestinian State. Tony Blair will press Bush to act over the settlement of this long-standing conflict.