Middle East facing 'worst crisis' in years, EU says
ANDREW RETTMAN
15.12.2006 @ 17:11 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Friday (15 December) said the Middle East is facing one of the "worst crises in years" after fighting broke out on Friday between rival Palestinian factions and Lebanon continues to stand on the verge of internal conflict.
"The Israeli-Arab conflict is at the heart of this crisis," the EU said, urging Israel and Palestine to live "side-by-side" on the basis of a 1967 UN agreement on borders and agreeing to an extension until March 2007 of the EU's so-called "TIM" aid mechanism that delivers cash while bypassing Hamas militants.
Both Palestine and Lebanon are on the verge of an upsurge in violence due to Arab-Israeli tensions, the EU says (Photo: IDF)
The violence in Palestine began when gunmen fired on Hamas' political leader Ismail Haniya, killing a bodyguard and injuring his son, while he was going through the EU-controlled Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza in a fire-fight that forced the 80 or so EU customs officials to flee.
Hamas said the move was an assassination attempt by Fatah, a rival political faction controlled by Mahmoud Abbas which is considered more friendly to western and Israeli ideas on conflict resolution, with supporters of the two factions engaging in skirmishes throughout the region on Friday.
In broader statements on Middle East problems, Europe repeated calls for Palestinian and Lebanese kidnappers to release three Israeli soldiers being held hostage since summer and urged Jerusalem to "stop violations of Lebanese airspace by the Israeli air force" at a tense time in Lebanon following the murder of pro-western industry minister Pierre Gemayel.
Europe scolded Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahamdinejad for cancelling a scheduled December meeting with the EU on human rights, adding that it "condemns any denial of the Holocaust as a historical fact" which forms the "underlying premise" of a Holocaust conference currently taking place in Tehran.
The 25-strong EU bloc also lent tentative support to sending an EU police training mission to Afghanistan in future, after EU top diplomat Javier Solana briefed EU leaders on Thursday that both Kabul and international organisations such as NATO and the UN would "welcome" such a move.
"The EU will examine ways of strengthening its engagement, including by looking at opportunities and conditions for a potential civilian...mission in the field of policing," the EU stated.
"This is significant - it clears the way for EU projects in civilian actions in both the north and the [more dangerous] south. It means that once NATO has cleared a space that is safe, the EU might come in to help with institution building and development," an EU diplomat explained.