The FINANCIAL --- President Nicolas Sarkozy's proposals from the UN
pulpit on Palestinian statehood have irritated some of his European
Union allies, some even judging the initiative counter-productive.
In the spotlight of the world's media, Sarkozy this week suggested the United Nations accept Palestine as a non-member state but not as a full member, on condition the Palestinians pledge not to take Israel before the International Criminal Court. He also issued a timeline to clinch a peace deal.
"Some aspects of President Sarkozy's speech have been under debate in the international community, so we were not surprised," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in a lukewarm response.
In Brussels, several EU diplomats pointed out that Sarkozy had presented the ideas as his own though they had been discussed for weeks by the Middle East Quartet -- comprising the United States, the Unted Nations, Russia and the EU -- as well as by EU nations and the bloc's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Several European nations "were irked" by Sarkozy's speech, a diplomat said.
The day before, British Foreign Secretary William Hague had said the 27 EU nations had decided to withhold their intention on a vote on the issue "in order to exert as much pressure on both sides to return to negotiations."
An EU foreign minister, who asked not to be identified, said "it's not the first time he's (Sarkozy) done this".
"We had decided within the EU to seek to maintain a joint position to the very end in order to enable us to overcome our historical differences on this question."
"But to do that everyone has to play the game," he added.
The minister said it would now "risk being even more difficult" to maintain a show of unity in Europe, split between pro-Israelis such as Germany, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, and nations traditionally closer to the Palestinian cause such as Spain, Austria and France.
Sources close to Ashton were particularly irritated to see France throw into the public arena ideas being discussed behind closed doors with the Palestinians to avoid a full membership bid that will trigger a US veto.
Sarkozy's proposals "are very familiar to us," said one source. "They're the same we've been discussing at the European level for several weeks."
Sarkozy and Ashton differ over whether offering the Palestinians status as a non-member state should be part of a wider package of proposals linked to a new Quartet proposal to resume direct talks.
Paris, however, believes Quartet efforts are bogged down and denies it has appropriated other people's ideas for itself.
"The president's proposals at the UN have been worked on for weeks by France," a foreign ministry spokesman, Romain Nadal, said Friday.
"France for months has viewed the status quo as unbearable and believed it had to be overcome by offering the Palestinians a political perpsective and re-establishing confidence between the parties."
Related Stories
