AMID exceptionally tight security, and beneath the magnificent glass roof of the Grand Palais, the leaders of 43 European and Mediterranean countries met in Paris on Sunday July 13th to launch a new club: the Union for the Mediterranean. For President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will co-chair the new grouping, along with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, the summit provided a chance to reassert French diplomacy and to grab a part in the quest for Middle East peace. With careful orchestration, both Syria's Bashar Assad and Israel's Ehud Olmert sat at the same table. Mr Olmert, after separate talks before the summit with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, declared that Israel and the Palestinians had “never been as close to the possibility of an agreement” on peace.
Mr Sarkozy originally devised his Club Med scheme to include only countries that ring the sea and as a means to “end all hatreds to make way for a great dream of peace”. In the face of fierce opposition from Germany, which suspected that Mr Sarkozy might use the grouping to promote French interests, the project was stripped of much of its grander purpose and wound into an existing EU cooperation Mediterranean project. Over recent months, French diplomatic efforts to get the new version moving have concentrated on more prosaic matters: the cleaning of pollution in the sea, solar energy, maritime routes.
Yet most attention at the Paris summit was on the bigger diplomatic questions. This was perhaps inevitable, given that the most arresting achievement was simply the improbable collection of leaders present. Only Libya's Muammar Qaddafi boycotted the summit on principle, arguing that it smacked of a neo-colonialism. Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika had threatened to stay away, but, after frenzied French diplomacy, even he turned up on the day. Thrilled at the turn-out, Mr Sarkozy returned to his grander discourse, claiming that “Together we are going to build peace in the Mediterranean, just as yesterday we built peace in Europe.”
The French president had been much criticised for inviting Mr Assad, who also attended the military parade on the Champs Elysée on July 14th, Bastille Day. Under Jacques Chirac, France broke off diplomatic ties with Syria. The former French president suspected that Syria was behind the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, who was a personal friend of the Chirac family. Mr Sarkozy, however, backs an end to Syria's diplomatic isolation, suggesting at the summit that peace can only be made when belligerents meet. Lebanon and Syria agreed to open embassies in each other's capitals, a move that appeared to mean recognition by Syria of Lebanon's full sovereignty. And Mr Assad told French television that he was ready to have "normal" relations with Israel; the two countries have been formally at war since 1948.
The atmosphere after the meeting between Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas was equally encouraging. Although the two sides now have regular talks, both leaders sounded particularly upbeat in Paris. Echoing Mr Olmert's assessment, Mr Abbas said that both Israelis and Palestinians were serious about wanting peace.
As Mr Sarkozy basks in the afterglow of a successful summit, however, hard questions about the new Club Med remain unanswered. The financing of many of the projects to be set up as part of the new Union for the Mediterranean is uncertain. If the EU turns out to be the chief financier, it is not obvious how the club can be run on an equal north-south footing, as it is supposed to be. Nor is it clear that the enormous energy invested into the summit by the French will be sustained in following up on the day-to-day details, once the party is over.
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