And Again Israel and Again Israel

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Thursday January 08, 2004 18:26

by the ipsiphi

January 9th 2004 IrlGov EU. meets His Excellency Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Foreign Minister

As a follow up to it's January 4th statement on the Golan heights, the Irish Presidency will tomorrow host the Palestinian foregin minister Dr Shaath.

Quite a formidable character who has been around _a log time_ like since before Yassar Arafat made the scarf so popular.

"Bertie says":

Nabil Shaath to Visit Dublin, 9 January 2004
Date: 8 Jan 2004
Policy Area: General Affairs and External Relations
Content Type: Press Releases

His Excellency Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Foreign Minister, will visit Dublin on 9 January for Presidency related meetings with the Minister of Foreign affairs, Brian Cowen TD. During the visit Dr Shaath will also meet the Taoiseach and the leader of the Seanad, Senator Mary O'Rourke. At Leinster House Dr Shaath will also meet with the Chair of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and will later meet with the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine. Dr Shaath will meet Minister Cowen at Iveagh House where the main item for discussion will be developments in the Middle East Peace Process. There will be a brief press opportunity at the end of the meeting at approximately 2pm.

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My usual drole style is padded out with reference to the sites linked at the end.

Dr. Nabil Shaath (born 1938) was previously the Palestinian Authority Minister of Planning and International Cooperation since 1994. Which like covers much the same stuff so he's familiar with the office. He was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996 representing Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.
Shaath is a member of Fatah's Central Committee and was part of the Palestinian delegation to the 1991 Madrid Middle East Peace Conference and has participated in several sessions of peace negotiations with Israel in Oslo and Washington. He liked the Spanish and they like him. He has signalled in the last year that Madrid or "Spain" would make a suitable place to hold the next hoped for talks.

Shaath headed the first delegation of the PLO to the United Nations and accompanied President Yasser Arafat during his famous 1974 speech at the U.N General Assembly. Shaath represented Palestine in many world conferences including the World Economic Forum.

From 1961-1965, Shaath taught Finance and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Shaath obtained two doctorates, one in law and another in economics, from the University of Pennsylvania. He later taught at the Universities of Cairo, Alexandria and Beirut.

August 3rd he met the Israeli foreign minister for the first time, and well Dr Shaath is the "Palestinian part of the Road Map" which so thoughtfully brings:-
Israel, USA, Palestine, Spain and Ireland together the matrix. We ought all watch this part of the "Irish Strategy" very carefully, the honeymoon shall soon be @ an end.

For one recent statement will be _very fresh_ (I suspect) in Dr Shaath's mind, that which he made on 22nd of December 2003 -
"Foreign Minister Dr. Nabil Shaath on Monday denied Israeli reports that US president George W.Bush said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat should be eliminated.

"Many US sources said these statements are incorrect and President Arafat has received many telephone calls asserting that these statements are not true," Shaath told the Jerusalem-based Al-Quds daily."

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http://www.nad-plo.org/who/n-shaath.html
http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0nmy0
http://www.pna.gov.ps/
http://www.eu2004.ie/templates/news.asp?sNavlocator=66&list_id=30
reaction to the Road Map unedited transcript of phone call:
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/25/sm.20.html

related post:
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=62851&search_text=israel

Now I suppose Avi H will organise a big protest or something.