Sarkozy’s Middle East Summit Plan

On Tuesday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, who received him in Janadriyah, near Riyadh. The French president informed his host about his idea to hold a summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris, to push the peace process forward. The president informed the king of his idea, which took shape after discussions were held with Abbas, Netanyahu and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, along with contacts between the French and the US administration. Sarkozy would like to see this summit take place with key participation by the US administration and Group of 4, and the leaders of the two main countries in the Middle East, namely Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Sarkozy said he had come to undertake profound discussions with the Saudi leadership, and described it as “wise.” Sarkozy went to Saudi Arabia and gave the visit a special character, without the usual media coverage. He informed the Saudi monarch about his intensive discussions in Paris with Netanyahu, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iraq’s Jalal Talabani, and his telephone contact with Abbas.

This summit, which could give Sarkozy international and domestic momentum, is doomed to fail as long as the US administration does not pressure Netanyahu effectively to change his policy toward the Palestinians and move truly toward a peace negotiation track. The French president hopes to mobilize leaders around his plan, and he is aware that the US role is essential here. However, why would Obama give him this gift, while he is in need of the same success on this difficult track, which he has promised to solve? In fact, the French president believes that the White House erred in its policy of specifying for the Israelis a halt to settlements as a condition for returning to negotiations.

France believes that all issues should be put on the table and negotiated, namely halting settlements, Jerusalem, borders, etc. However, Sarkozy’s summit plan might be an unachievable dream because the Israeli prime minister is maneuvering and does not want any Palestinian state or any concessions, or any peace. Only the US president can exercise true pressure.

As for the Syrian-Israeli track, it was Sarkozy’s desire to receive, from his new Syrian friend, a certain role on a negotiation track that has been halted since the Gaza War, and the deterioration in Israeli-Turkish relations. The Israeli prime minister is maneuvering on this front as well, leaking information about an Israeli message via France to al-Assad, and that Netanyahu prefers Sarkozy as a mediator, to the Turks. The Syrian president, meanwhile, has openly affirmed that he is determined to retain the Turkish mediator and that the only request he has made to his friend Sarkozy is to pressure Israel to accept the Turkish mediator and resume negotiations.

The Syrian president’s visit to France was successful and important for the Syrian president, who received a “loftier” reception than usual in traditional working visits. He was able to conduct unprecedented level of public relations in the French capital. Al-Assad was not stingy when it came to media interviews and television appearances. Meetings were held for him with the leading French intellectuals and media figures, who saw the president’s attractiveness, modernity and skill in dealing with the media, in contrast to the Syrian embassy in France, which has been the subject of criticism. However, the visit did not give anything to Sarkozy, whether on the Syrian-Israeli track, or the alliance with Iran (al-Assad criticized European dealing with Iran on this nuclear issue), or the French-Iranian girl being held in Tehran, Clothilde Reiss. The Syrian president recommended to French officials that if they wanted to solve this issue, they should take the legal track and send lawyers and legal experts for her trial in Iran, or the political track, and solve it by paying a political price on the nuclear issue, and take Iranian proposals into consideration. Sarkozy’s warnings about an Israeli military strike against Iran and his fear that a fire could ignite in the region have not caused a change in the Syrian position. As for Lebanon, the Syrian president observed that disputes inside Lebanon were due to the Lebanese themselves, and that Syria had nothing to do with Lebanese disputes. He also said that Lebanon’s stability and prosperity were in Syria’s interest. The French agreed with him about an improvement in conditions in Lebanon and there was no additional French demand on this issue, which tooks up only a short period of the discussions.

Will Sarkozy succeed in convincing King Abdullah to participate in a Palestinian-Israeli summit, or have the Israeli stances made the Saudi King lose hope from an Israeli administration that was offered a golden opportunity for peace by the Arab initiative but kept maneuvering out of accepting it?

It is feared that Sarkozy’s dream to push forward the wheel of peace will be shattered because of his Israeli friend’s maneuvers!