{"id":3322,"date":"2019-02-19T03:24:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T03:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/?p=3322"},"modified":"2019-03-12T03:21:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T03:21:41","slug":"coveney-to-host-meeting-of-foreign-ministers-about-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/2019\/02\/19\/coveney-to-host-meeting-of-foreign-ministers-about-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Coveney to host meeting of foreign ministers about Middle East"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney<\/a> will host a private meeting of a group of Arab and EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss the Middle East peace process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consultative meeting takes place against the background of the imminent announcement of a new US peace initiative, and, sources say, is an attempt by the more sympathetic EU states to engage with the Palestinans ahead of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US president Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner<\/a>, who has special responsibility for the issue, is expected to unveil US proposals after the Israeli elections in early April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel\u2019s Channel 15 TV quotes an Irish diplomatic source saying that the participants want the Palestinians \u201cto feel that they are not alone and have the support of both Arab and European countries\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Coveney is hosting a dinner on Monday and a meeting on Tuesday \u2013 described by the Department of Foreign Affairs as a \u201cretreat-style meeting\u201d \u2013 in Farmleigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be a \u201cconfidential discussion on the present state of the Middle East peace process and how best to move forward\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The confirmed attendance includes representatives from France<\/a>, Egypt<\/a>, Jordan<\/a>, Sweden<\/a>, Bulgaria<\/a>, Cyprus<\/a>, the secretary general of the League of Arab States, and the Palestinian authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIreland\u2019s experience in the past has been that confidentiality can allow for a better discussion between different participants,\u201d a department statement says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe intention is not to launch any new process but to consider ways to support and shape engagement on this issue in other fora.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt\u2019s Sameh Shoukry<\/a> is understood to have flown to Dublin on Sunday evening \u2013 his visit will be the first by an Egyptian foreign minister to Ireland<\/a>in 12 years. He will also meet President Michael D Higgins<\/a> and the Ceann Comhairle Se\u00e1n \u00d3 Feargha\u00edl. Mr Shoukry expected to make a speech to the Institute of International and European Affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middle East media reports suggest that \u201cIsrael<\/a> is aware of the upcoming conference and staunchly opposed to it\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, alluding to the D\u00e1il\u2019s recent attempt to ban products from the Occupied Territories, asked \u201chow Ireland can be an arbiter when it acts against Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East?\u201d Mr Coveney, however, is understood to been in touch with Washington and have allayed US concerns about the meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diplomatic sources stressed that Ireland remains committed to a \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d, about which the US has been deeply equivocal recently, and would also hope to see discussions about Palestinian \u201cred lines\u201d, settlements and reconciliation within its community. Egyptian participation is seen as particularly important in this context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Palestinian ambassador to Ireland Ahmad Abdelrazek<\/a> is quoted in Middle East Monitor<\/em> saying that planning for the meeting has been going on for five months and noting that \u201cthe obstacles Israel used to try [to] halt the meeting have been removed\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will host a private meeting of a group of Arab and EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss the Middle East peace process. The consultative meeting takes place against the background of the imminent announcement of a new US peace initiative, and, sources say, is an attempt by the more sympathetic EU states to engage with… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[214],"class_list":["post-3322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-www-irishtimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3323,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3322\/revisions\/3323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}