NATO Parliamentary Mediterranean Group Meeting----

Opening Briefing for the Meeting of the Mediterranean Special Group of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Doha/Qatar: The Situation in the Wider Middle East

1. Introduction

2. Brief history of Qatar

3. The situation in Iraq and the impacts on the capacities and options for action available to Europe, NATO and the international community

4. The transatlantic debate about the wider Middle East

5. The obligation to develop a common area of peace, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and economic progress

6. Strategy for implementation, based on three regions

a) Iraq and its immediate neighbours

b) The wider region

c) Development in Iraq as the starting point for a transregional spectrum

7. Overview of the situation in Iraq and the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran and neighbouring countries

8. The situation in the wider region

9. Iraq and the wider region as a starting point for thoughts on a transregional spectrum extending from North Africa’s Atlantic coast to Indonesia

10. The international community’s priorities to stabilize Iraq, and the role of

a) NATO

b) EU

c) UN

11. Conclusions

(1) I was very pleased to accept the invitation to provide the opening briefing for our deliberations. At this seminar, the Mediterranean Special Group of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly will explore in more detail the issues which it last discussed in Jordan and Italy. On those occasions, the wider Middle East was the main focus of attention, along with the role of NATO in the region and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. My overview of the key issues for our discussions will encompass the Mediterranean as a whole as well as Iraq and the wider region. I will also explore the implications for the transregional and geopolitical context. As part of the wider Middle East, Qatar and its capital are a particularly appropriate setting for a discussion of this diverse range of topics.

(2) We are meeting in a country which has an impressive history. Archaeological discoveries show that the land of Qatar was populated as early as 4000 BC. Writing in the 5^th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus referred to the seafaring Canaanites as the original inhabitants of Qatar. The geographer Ptolemy depicted “Qatara” on his map of the Arab World; this is believed to refer to the town of “Zubara”, known to have been one of the most important trading ports in the Gulf region at the time. Qatar played an important role in Islamic civilization when its inhabitants participated in the formation and provision of the first naval fleet, which was assembled to transport the army during the Islamic conquests. During the 16th century AD, Qatar allied itself with the Turks to drive out the Portuguese. Subsequently, Qatar – along with the entire region of the Arabian Peninsula – came under Ottoman rule.

History calls on us to learn lessons. Which impetus can we, as members of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Mediterranean Special Group, develop and send out to this region?

(3) In early summer this year, I compiled a paper on the situation in Iraq and its implications for the wider region. It was intended to stimulate new ideas. It focussed on the capacities and options for action available to Europe, NATO and the international community. I circulated the paper to people who I knew have a particular interest in this topic. The positive response from Pierre Lellouche, the President of the Assembly, our own chairman Jean Michel Boucheron, the NATO Secretary General, government ministers, diplomats and others was encouraging. It has prompted me to elaborate my ideas.

(4) A strategy to promote democracy has been a key focus of the transatlantic debate about the wider Middle East since the launch of President Bush’s initiative in November 2003. At last year’s Munich Conference on Security Policy, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for strategies to shape globalization in a positive way in the Middle Eastern countries. In view of the major challenges facing our common security, the transatlantic partners should be encouraged to develop a new transatlantic initiative for the Middle East. The importance of a common transatlantic approach was the subject of the consultations among the G8 heads of state and government and at the NATO Summit in 2004. The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative imposes an obligation on us, as NATO parliamentarians, to expand the Alliance’s Mediterranean Dialogue, and that means involving the wider region. At this year’s Munich Security Conference, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer described NATO’s engagement in the broader Middle East region as an opportunity to reach out in a new strategic environment. He said that NATO needs to set up a network of partnerships which has to include “countries across Europe, through the Caucasus, and into Central Asia”. It also has to include countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle Eastern region, given the pivotal importance of this region for the Alliance but also for the entire international community.

(5) There is an obligation to develop a common area of peace, human rights, democracy, the rule of law and economic progress in this region. Iraq is both the focus and the starting point for this process. Consolidating democracy in Iraq and establishing a framework for its internal and external security will impact on the entire region and should serve as a model for other countries. For the international community as a whole, and especially for the members of the Alliance, the question whether the Arab/Muslim world embarks on the overdue process of modernization and moves towards democracy and a free market system is of crucial importance. It is vital, in any event, to prevent the totalitarian variant of Islam and the “closed society” model from gaining the upper hand. A secure supply of oil for the global economy, victory over transnational terrorism, and the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons are not only strategic objectives of the USA; they are also a prerequisite for prosperity and development in the region, for the members of NATO, and worldwide.

(6) The strategy for the realization of these objectives and development opportunities encompasses three levels:

a) The starting point is Iraq and its immediate neighbours. Iraq could exert a stabilizing influence on those states which are under authoritarian rule. Strategies to build democracy and the rule of law could be developed and promoted. Iran and the Palestinian-Arab-Israeli conflict are key problem areas in this context. Israel, as a parliamentary democracy under the rule of law, has the capacity to support the desired approaches. The aim should be a wide-ranging multilateral security architecture involving cooperation between NATO, the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council, for example.

b) From this starting point – Iraq and its immediate neighbours – our thoughts turn to the wider region. This includes the Islamic countries from Morocco and Mauritania to Somalia and Sudan, and extends to the CIS states to the north-east of Iraq and those of the Caucasus. The nuclear states of India and Pakistan must also be included. In this group of states, the Western nations have the chance to call for democratic reforms. Parliamentary and government contacts should be utilized more intensively to initiate the – albeit gradual – transition to democracy.

c) The third level builds on the groups of countries which I have just described. It views a successful transition to democratic stability in an Iraq under the rule of law as the starting point for a transregional spectrum. This extends from the North African Atlantic coast all the way to Indonesia and encompasses Malaysia as well as Brunei. It is marked by conflict, terrorism, political, economic and social instability, poverty, illiteracy and authoritarian structures. The influence exerted by a democratic Iraq could radiate into this spectrum and help consolidate emerging forms of governance under the rule of law.