Arab diplomat: Czech Republic close to Israeli and U.S. positions
It seems the Czech minister of foreign affairs is doing something right. He was the target of Arab diplomats’ indignation for his position during the EU debate about the “Lebanon crisis” on Tuesday, according to the article at the Novinky news server. Germany, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Poland did not agree with the wording of the statement proposed by Finland which called for an “immediate ceasefire” between Israel and Hezbollah. The compromise statement calls for “an immediate cessation of hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire”. I think the difference between the two is very subtle; as I see it, the original proposal called for an unconditional ceasefire while the compromise statement leaves some room for intepretation as to what a sustainable ceasefire is. The Arab diplomats in Prague will probably issue an official criticism of the Czech Republics’ position. I wonder if their colleagues in the other four EU countries that blocked the adoption of the original draft will criticize those countries as well. Actually, they should probably criticize the whole EU since the statement could not have been adopted without the agreement of all 25 EU members.