WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) -- Insider notes from United Press International for May 27 ...
Urged by his guest President George Bush to get "personally involved" in reviving the Middle East peace process, Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday sent a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, backing the Saudi peace plan -- just as the Saudi plan is being overtaken by events. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak thinks he owns the Arab side of Mideast peace diplomacy and has mounted a full-court press to regain the initiative from the Saudis ahead of his trip to Washington next week. He summoned the leaders of the Gulf states Bahrain and Oman to Egypt last week, and top EU diplomat Javier Solana flies into Cairo Wednesday, followed Thursday by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns and Friday by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. On his second trip to Washington this year, Mubarak wants to present Egypt's plan for an international peace conference, pre-packaged with EU and Arab diplomatic support and financing.
Speaking of visits, a discreet word was passed to the Bush administration team in Moscow that Russia is going to give a visa to the Dalai Lama, to allow the Tibetan Buddhist leader to visit Mongolia for the first time. Mongolia's premier Nambaryn Enkhbayar has apparently said the Dalai Lama is welcome, and while Russia had in the past refused a visa (at Beijing's request), this time the Russians want to consolidate their warming relations with Washington by showing their support for freedom of religion. This openness still does not extend to Pope John Paul II, however. The Polish-born pope's cherished wish to visit Russia has been and remains consistently blocked by the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, despite an open invitation from the Kremlin leadership first extended by Mikhail Gorbachev when he visited the Vatican, and confirmed by both Boris Yeltsin or Vladimir Putin -- subject to Patriarch Alexy's approval. The Russian patriarch -- who would be John Paul II's official host in Russia -- embodies the strongest opposition to he pope's efforts to reconcile the centuries-old split between Rome and the Eastern Orthodox churches. So the frail pontiff seems unlikely to get his wish.
President George W. Bush is hearing a lot on his European trip about the 15-nation EU's grandiose ambitions to take in 10 more nations from Eastern and Central Europe. What he hasn't heard from his German, French and Italian counterparts is that the enlargement process has run into trouble. The mechanics of enlargement are defined in the Treaty of Nice, whose ratification was thought to be a formality, until the Irish voted No in a referendum last year. To try and get a yes in a new referendum, the European Union will next month at its Seville summit declare a formal commitment to recognize Ireland's neutral status. This may not be enough, since the result of the Irish elections was to weaken the two coalition parties most in favor of the Nice treaty. Irish Member of the European Parliament Mary Benotti, reckoned one of the best-informed Irish politicians in Europe, is in despair saying: "I regret that it is now my belief, following the election in Ireland, that the ratification of the Nice Treaty is doomed. I believe that unless there is a miracle in Ireland, the treaty is lost."
EU enlargement faces another problem. The voters don't like it. The latest Eurbarometer opinion poll shows only three of 15 EU members -- Sweden, Greece and Denmark -- with more than 50 percent support for enlargement. In Britain, only 40 percent support it, followed by 39 percent in Germany, and a wretchedly low 26 percent in France. Not that a lack of public support has ever stopped Europe's elites in the past. But commission officials in Brussels are starting to get nervous that the big project could be embarrassingly derailed.
Even Eurovision, the annual European song contest that draws one of the largest television audiences all year, does not escape politics. Israeli diplomats are preparing protests against TV presenters in Belgium and Sweden who on Saturday night called on viewers to vote down Israel's entry, "Light the Candle," as a protest of Israel's military actions against Palestinians. The Belgian announcer said that although the song "was not bad, we should hope that Israel does not win. This is not the time for Israel to host the Eurovision." In Sweden, one announcer said Israel should not even be in the contest "because of what it is doing to the Palestinians." Latvia won, and gets the right to host next year's contest. Israel came in 12th.
