Israeli ban halts Glencree peace talks

A PEACE conference between the Israelis and Palestinians, organised by Glencree, was postponed yesterday after the Israelis refused to let one of the Palestinian delegation travel to Ireland.

Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen travels to Israel tomorrow to meet the prime minister, the foreign minister and to pay a courtesy call on the president. He will not meet the Palestinians.

The three-day peace conference was being part-funded by the Government and was organised to coincide with the country’s EU presidency.

Israeli security authorities vetoed the travel arrangements for one of the Palestinian delegates, who was also a member of the Palestinian Legislative Authority, on the grounds that he was a security risk.

During the visit, the group was to have met Mr Cowen and to have had discussions about the Irish peace process with politicians and church leaders, including unionists David Trimble and Peter Robinson, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, SDLP leader Mark Durcan and Minister of State for the North Paul Murphy.

A spokesperson for Glencree said it believes it will resolve the problem and groups from both sides will attend the study session in four to six weeks.

A spokesperson for Mr Cowen denied he was giving in to the Israelis by not seeking to meet the Palestinians also.

“The Minister has already had a meeting with the Palestinian foreign minister in Dublin on Friday and has invited their prime minister to visit Ireland during the presidency.”

Mr Cowen will visit Egypt for talks with the Arab League and plans to meet the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.

He is expected to discuss the Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath’s request, made during the visit to Dublin last week, that the EU work to revive the peace process and to stop the building of the wall around Palestinian territory.

The wall will be discussed at the International Court in The Hague on February 23 to which it has been referred by the UN general assembly.

His visit as president of the EU’s Council of Foreign Ministers come days after the visit by the US envoy for the Middle East, William Burns, to Egypt for talks on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

He is expected to discuss a proposal by Saudi Arabia for a joint European-Arab move to revive the roadmap by the Quartet made up of Russia, the UN, the US and the EU.

The Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal made the suggestion last week during the visit of the EU’s Middle East envoy Marc Otte.