By NNN-KUNA
Paris : France will work hard to achieve a consensus among the 27 European Union members on policy towards the Middle East region during the French Presidency of the EU, which begins July 1, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.
Speaking to the press Tuesday, Kouchner acknowledged the ongoing difficulties among the EU countries and the seemingly endless disputes over policy in the region. “It is very difficult,” Kouchner remarked.
“With 27 it is not easy.” But he indicated that sometimes developments came about that were unexpected and he said France would work to harmonize positions. Nonetheless, he warned time was short for this.
“In July and August, it is hard to get any work done. That leaves four months, which is pretty short.” But again he expressed some guarded confidence that things might edge forward in the region.
“What’s new in the Middle East? There will be a summit in Damascus when people said there would be no summit if there were no elections in Lebanon,” he remarked.
“Will there be a new initiative. I hope so, I hope so, I hope so,” he said. He also said that one could never exclude an EU undertaking in the region, if this proved useful and had support.
“Why not one by the 27?” he said of potential initiatives.
On the Lebanese situation, Kouchner made a sober assessment of the impasse and said regarding elections that there would be “nothing before the Damascus summit” at the end of the month.
He denied rumours that any new French initiative was being considered. France has gotten behind an Arab League initiative to bring the Lebanese sides together, but this has so far failed.
Kouchner said he “regretted a lot” that a solution could not be found in Lebanon and he encouraged the Lebanese civil society “to publish the wishes of the Lebanese” and he said he admired these bodies because they were “non-sectarian” unlike political structures in the country.