Arafat and Moratinos (AP)
Now that Spain has knuckled under to Islamic terror, thus announcing to the world its intention to reassume dhimmi status, to whom do US officials turn for help in mediating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Why, Spain, of course. And not just any negotiator the Spanish government may see fit to provide, but none other than Zapatero’s Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos.
Moratinos is the one who announced in March that he would “urge EU allies and Washington to seek a ‘new strategy’ to counter terrorism.”
His comments came a day after US President George W. Bush had warned allies that “there is no neutral ground between good and evil,” adding that the war on terror “is an inescapable calling of our generation.”
For Moratinos, however, “our positions are a little different.
“We think we have to use very complex and different instruments” to counter terrorism, rather than simply force, he added in welcoming the “nuanced positions” of EU foreign policy head Javier Solana and Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission.
In Berlin on Saturday, Solana warned against a hysterical reaction to the threat of attacks in the wake of the Madrid bombings.
“We have to energetically oppose terrorism, but we mustn’t change the way we live,” Solana has told the German weekly Bild am Sonntag in an interview to appear on Sunday, adding “Europe is not at war.”
Prodi for his part said that “conflict with the terrorists will not be resolved by force.”
Evidently, then, they want to negotiate with the terrorists.
The primary example of how negotiating with a terrorist gives him legitimacy that only leads to more terror is Arafat, with whom Moratinos has met on many occasions.
From Reuters, with thanks to nabrahambi:
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s new foreign minister said on Thursday the United States had asked him for help in promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice asked Miguel Angel Moratinos to mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during a meeting in Washington on Wednesday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
But Moratinos, who spent seven years as the European Union’s special envoy to the Middle East, was cautious about the word “mediation” when questioned at a news conference later.
“The word ‘mediation’ is a word with a lot of diplomatic content. Mediations are when you have the mandate of the parties (or) a clear mandate of the international community,” he said after talks with visiting French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.
“What our American friends have asked me — given my experience — is that I should help them, that Spain should contribute within the European Union to create this new dynamic that has begun with the (Israeli) initiative to withdraw from Gaza. No more and no less,” he said.
Similar efforts were being made by Barnier and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said Moratinos, a member of Spain’s new Socialist government which took office last weekend.
“I agreed to contribute my grain of sand to get out of this dilemma, (something) which is fundamental for the stability of the whole region,” he said.
In Washington, a state department official said there was no question of a mediating role.
“In the meeting it was agreed they would help on the subject of the withdrawal from Gaza and reform in the Greater Middle East Initiative. They agreed to help us present these things as moments of opportunity,” the official, who asked not to be named, said.
Barnier stressed Moratinos’ knowledge of the people and the sensitivities of the Middle East.
“We need that experience (in the EU) to help the road map progress,” he said, referring to a peace plan endorsed by the United States, the EU, the United Nations and Russia.
The EU tried to defuse tension with Washington over the Middle East last Saturday, saying Israel’s planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip could be a “significant step” on the road to peace.