EU Foreign Policy Chief to Visit Egypt on Mideast Situation

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EU Foreign Policy Chief to Visit Egypt on Mideast Situation

MON, FEB 25, 2002

European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Javier Solana will begin his visit to Egypt next Wednesday for the worsening Mideast situation, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

"During the visit, Solana will get acquainted with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's views on European moves aimed at solving the current crisis which threatens to explode the Mideast situation," MENA quoted a spokeswoman for Solana as saying.

Egypt is part of Solana's Mideast tour, which will also take him to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian self-rule territories.

Solana's Mideast trip comes amid the escalating Palestinian-Israeli violence, which has left dozens of people dead since last week.

Earlier this month, an European source said that Solana's Mideast visit aims to reaffirm Europe's role in seeking a solution to the deteriorating Mideast problem through political dialog and security cooperation between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

Solana's visit to Egypt follows in the footsteps of German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen, as part of European efforts to help end the escalating violence and bring the Palestinians and Israel back to negotiations.

The European side has stressed the need to focus on political measures to achieve Mideast peace, a move different from the U.S. approach to press Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to rein in "terrorism."

European officials have been intensifying a call for Israel to lift its siege on Arafat, who has been confined to the West Bank city of Ramallah since last December, saying that "you can not ask him to do all he can to prevent violence and debilitate him at the same time."

Editor:Zhong Source:Xinhua

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