Davutoğlu: Quartet, road map irrelevant for Mideast peace

Davutoğlu, on a two-day visit to regional powerhouse Egypt, urged Arab countries to act in consensus to facilitate settlement efforts and help unity among Palestinian groups, warning that the Mideast cannot afford to lose more time. The foreign minister addressed a foreign ministerial meeting of the Arab League on Wednesday for the second time in the past six months.

Speaking at meetings with Egyptian journalists and intellectuals on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning, Davutoğlu said an international quartet -- consisting of senior representatives from the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- were no longer relevant in efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He also underlined that the Palestinian side was not sufficiently represented in the diplomatic group. The quartet mediators presented a “roadmap” to Israeli and Palestinian leaders in 2002, outlining steps to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as early as 2005.

“There should be a clear vision of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian state should be recognized. Nobody should say ‘roadmap’ any more. We want the end of the road, not more new processes without timeframes,” Davutoğlu said.

The United States is seeking to restart talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but the Palestinians are skeptical, demanding a clear timeframe and a declaration from the United States in advance on what action it will take should the talks fail at the end of the designated negotiating period. European countries, such as France and Spain, on the other hand, are calling for a commitment to recognize an independent Palestinian state in 18 months, even if there is no solution by then.

Davutoğlu also underlined that there was no coherent government in Israel and said the two main leaders of the coalition -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman -- do not share a common vision on the future. The rivalry between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah and the radical Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is also not promising for the future.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (L) is greeted by his Lebanese counterpart, Ali al-Shami, and Egyptian Ambassador Abdel Raman Salah as he attends, as an observer, the Arab Foreign Ministers meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Wednesday.

“There can be no solution without unity first being achieved among our Palestinian brothers. In Israel, there is also division. Settlement is not possible as long as such rifts persist. Then, the Western countries should be told that the decades-old [Israeli] invasion must end. There must be a solution based on the pre-1967 borders,” Davutoğlu said. The Israeli government, however, is against withdrawing to the borders that predate the 1967 Six-Day War.

“A roadmap and the quartet are not sufficient. Peace efforts must now have a very clear political goal. And for these efforts to be successful, Israel must be brought to the table,” he said.

For the foreign minister, decisions from Wednesday’s Arab League meeting will be of central importance throughout 2010. “We have to be realistic: Without Arab reconciliation it will be difficult to move ahead in the Middle East peace process,” he said, urging the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to give clear messages encouraging unity among Palestinians. “We should not allow individual conflicts to harm a sacred cause like the Palestinian cause,” he added.

Before Obama leaves office

In his meetings with Egyptian journalists and intellectuals, Davutoğlu also warned regional countries that Middle East peace efforts could face even bigger difficulties if no progress is achieved in 2010, after which the current US administration will most likely be distracted from foreign policy given that it will be in the last two years of its term.

He also called on Middle Eastern countries to develop policies to resolve conflicts in the region without outside interference, saying a stalemate in one area blocks progress in the others. “This is our home. We should decide on how to organize it, and nobody should impose their view on the others,” he said.

On Iran, which is in a bitter standoff with the West over its nuclear program, Davutoğlu was optimistic, saying diplomacy still has a chance to succeed. He also reiterated Turkey’s opposition to tough sanctions on Iran or a military campaign to deter Tehran.

Addressing the Arab League meeting on Wednesday, Davutoğlu said concerted efforts were needed to change the image of the Middle East, which he said was still perceived to be at the heart of disputes and instability in the world. “However, it is a fact that unresolved problems in the Middle East still continue to impede socioeconomic development and thus present fertile ground for violence and extremism,” he said, adding that a just, comprehensive and lasting solution to the Palestinian problem would pave the way for the development and welfare of all peoples in the region.

Israel and Egypt ties

Dismissing suggestions that Turkey and Egypt, one with growing clout in the Middle East and the other a traditional powerhouse within the Arab world, could be rivals to each other, Davutoğlu said regional countries should refrain from seeing each other as a threat. “We are not in competition with Egypt. We want to add new momentum to Turkish-Egyptian relations,” he said.

However, on Turkey’s ties with Israel, which have deteriorated sharply in the past year after an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, the foreign minister remained adamant. “Israel gets a response when it attacks Gaza in the middle of peace talks [with Syria under Turkish mediation]. It gets a response when it insults our ambassador,” he said, referring to a public humiliation of Turkish Ambassador Oğuz Çelikkol in January by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon.

Asked to comment on the recent arrests of senior retired and active duty military commanders as part of an investigation into the shadowy Ergenekon network, Davutoğlu said Turkey was a country with a strong army and a strong tradition of democracy. “These are not alternatives to each other. Strong countries can only be established by governments that derive their legitimacy from the people and are accountable only to the people,” he said.