More Middle East Missions

Europe is making another attempt to mediate in the Middle East conflict. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the EU's Middle East envoy Miguel Moratinos traveled to the region on Wednesday.

Their first stop was Ramallah, where they met with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Israel gave Solana the go-ahead to visit Arafat on Wednesday. Earlier this month, it had denied him access to the Palestinian leader.

After Solana's 90-minute meeting with Arafat, Solana's spokeswoman said they discussed the "humanitarian situation" of Palestinians and the three-week-old standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, built over the site Christians revere as Jesus' birthplace.

There was some progress Thursday afternoon towards ending the standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters holed up inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Israel allowed the bodies of two Palestinians killed in recent fighting to be taken out of the building by eight teenagers. It was the largest group to leave the church since the siege began. Officials say negotiations on the fate of some 200 people still inside the church will continue.

Solana and Sharon meet on Thursday

On Thursday, Solana met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an attempt to get the peace process moving again. But so far, his efforts have failed to bring the Israelis and Palestinians any closer to a resumption of negotiations.

One of Solana's tasks was to convince Israel that European politicians aren't blind in one eye: Israel has complained about what it says is a pro-Palestinian bias among Europe's politicians. In recent weeks, European leaders have strongly criticized Israel's military incursions into the West Bank, launched after a series of suicide attacks in Israel.

Old foes unite to negotiate

Javier Solana's mission is only one of two European initiatives that reached the Middle East this week. On Wednesday, traditional foes Greece and Turkey teamed up for an unusual joint peace mission. The foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece were due to visit Arafat and Israeli leaders on Thursday. They said they wanted to share their experience in bridging gaps and resolving conflicts between former enemies.

Turkey is the Muslim state most closely allied to Israel. It is tied to the Jewish state through a number of military cooperation agreements and through a common view of themselves as western nations in the Middle East. But being a predominantly Muslim country, Turkey also enjoys good relations with the Arab world. Some analysts think Turkey could play a key role in future negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

UN enquiry into Jenin military operation

Overnight an argument between Israel and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan surfaced over the Jenin camp probe. Israel late on Tuesday night threatened to block the UN mission planning to investigate the military operation in the Jenin refugee camp. Israel said it wasn't satisfied with the makeup of the fact-finding team and said it would not admit it to Jenin. "It should include military experts, counter-terrorism experts," Israel's UN ambassador Yehuda Lancry said.

"We believe the mandate of the fact-finding team should not only cover the military operation of Israel, but also the terrorist network that flourished in the Jenin refugee camp and which, in fact, generated the Israeli military operation," Lancry added.

Palestinians, who have alleged a massacre in the camp, responded angrily. They said Israel's objections to a mission it had agreed to on Friday showed it had something to hide. Mohammed Rashid, an aide to Yasser Arafat, said the Palestinians were not surprised by Israel's refusal to cooperate.

Compromise

In what is seen as a compromise, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has meanwhile agreed to postpone the departure of the fact-finding team. Instead of beginning its investigations in Jenin on Wednesday, the team is now due to arrive there on Saturday. Annan also made an offer that experts might be added to the team "as necessary".

The team will be headed by former Finish President Martti Ahtisaari. It will also include Cornelio Sommaruga, former president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Sadako Ogata, the former UN high commissioner for refugees. On Tuesday, Ahtisaari announced a U.S. military adviser would also be made a full member of the team.