Paris, 15 June, 2005.- The WEU Assembly has urged the European Union (EU) to bolster its capacity to establish peace in the Middle East.

Presenting a report on behalf of the Political Committee, entitled ‘Developments in the Broader Middle East,’ Josette Durrieu (France/Soc) said the EU “must have the ability to carry out strong action”, and at some stage should promote an international conference which would lead to a “final agreement” between Israel and Palestine.

Events in Iraq and Lebanon were “moving very fast” in political terms. A “fragile balance” between religious forces had been established in Iraq and Mrs Durrieu’s view was that “we seem to have achieved the balance we are looking for” in Lebanon”. A major question that still needed to be addressed was the place of Islam in the quest for democracy. Turning to the three major threats posed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the nuclear programmes being pursued by Syria and Iran respectively, she said that while the direction Europe was taking was not a bad one, it would not be able to do anything to bring about a lasting solution under the road map negotiations until the Americans made clear what they wanted.

One challenge facing the region was the political integration of radical Islamic movements. “Their place is within society, provided that they disarm and respect the rule of law” said Mrs Durrieu. Models still had to be found to reconcile Islam with democracy but there were some hopeful signs such as the banking system in Bahrain, which was based on Sharia law.

Mrs Durrieu noted that there was  “wholesale apprehension, even distrust,” that the declared objectives were not the real goals. She was convinced that European involvement would go down better and that there was even a strong demand for it.