The European Community appears to be satisfied that Israel will allow it to participate fully in the multilateral phase of the Middle East peace talks, which resumes later this month with five sets of talks in various capitals.
That was the impression conveyed to the E.C. foreign ministers by their current chairman, Joao de Deus Pinheiro of Portugal, at a meeting Friday and Saturday in the Portuguese resort of Guimaraes.
Pinheiro was fresh from a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy in Lisbon, where they discussed an E.C. role in the five working groups established at the opening of the multilateral phase in Moscow on Jan. 28-29.
According to diplomatic sources here, Israel withdrew its opposition to an E.C. presence in the disarmament working group, due to meet May 11-13 in Washington.
After his talk with Levy on April 30, the Portuguese foreign minister was quoted as saying, “We in the Community wish to participate as actively as possible in the peace process. I think our talks today have achieved this.”
He added that “Israel is ready for Europe to participate in every aspect, and we will now have to discuss some points in detail, but objectively, I am satisfied with these talks.”
Israel has taken the position that only the two co-sponsors of the multilateral talks, the United States and Russia, should participate in the meetings on disarmament.
But Europe insists it should take part on the grounds of its serious concern for Middle East security and the fact that several European nations are important arms exporters to the region.
LEVY TO MEET WITH E.C. MINISTERS
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was said to have told his Cabinet on Sunday that the European role has “not yet been finalized.”
Diplomatic sources said details of European participation remained to be worked out next week when Levy meets the 12 E.C. foreign ministers in Brussels in the context of the annual meeting of the E.C.-Israel Cooperation Council.
The sources said that contrary to some media reports, the E.C. has not offered Israel economic inducements to be more flexible on the European role in the Middle East peace process.
But Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes last week linked Israel’s willingness to advance peace with its future integration in the European Economic Area.
“If Israel maintains its refusal to accept an E.C. presence in the disarmament group of the multilateral talks, the 12 European member states could react in the area of economic relations,” he told a committee of the Belgian Parliament.
Meanwhile, another clash between Israel and the E.C. seems to be shaping up with respect to the meeting of the multilateral working group on economic development, scheduled to be held May 11-13 in Brussels, under E.C. chairmanship.
Israel has announced it would boycott that meeting, as well as one in Ottawa the following week on refugees, if members of the Palestinian diaspora are allowed to participate.
The E.C. has already said it would invite them, and the foreign ministers are expected to urge Israel to reconsider.
Israel was reported to be ready to accept diaspora Palestinians in the working groups if they come as members of the delegations of the Arab countries where they permanently reside. But Shamir has denied proposing any such compromise.
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