ABU DHABI, Feb 5: German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Emirati President Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan on Monday as part of her talks with Gulf leaders on international efforts to revive the Middle East peace process.
The meeting focused on “developments in the region, notably the Palestinian question, the situation in Iraq and Lebanon” as well as economic ties between Berlin and Abu Dhabi, the state news agency WAM reported.
Merkel said Germany, as the current European Union president, would throw its weight behind the reconciliation talks in Makkah on Tuesday between Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure the talks are successful,” Merkel said, adding that the EU would stay in close contact with Saudi Arabia, which is hosting the meeting.
The Abbas-Meshaal talks in Makkah are being held in a bid to settle an inter-factional conflict that has claimed 63 lives since Jan 25.
Merkel said she was happy that King Abdullah, whom she met earlier in Riyadh, had signalled he was prepared “to attempt to bring the opposing parties in the Palestinian conflict together”.
Iran’s nuclear programme was also discussed in Monday’s talks in Abu Dhabi.
“We are worried about Iran’s nuclear programme,” the German chancellor told journalists after meeting Sheikh Khalifa.
Merkel briefed the leader of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on “the ideas and visions of Germany concerning the problems of the Middle East, starting with international efforts to re-launch the peace process,” WAM said.
Sheikh Khalifa also called for a boost to economic ties between their countries, whose two-way trade increased 25 per cent last year to $7 billion, according to statistics published on Monday by Al-Bayan newspaper.
Merkel, who flew in from Saudi Arabia, was to address Emirati and German businessmen later before travelling to Dubai on Tuesday and then on to Kuwait, the last stop of her Middle East tour which began in Egypt.
In Riyadh, she met King Abdullah as well as the crown prince and foreign minister of the oil-rich monarchy, and Abderrahman al-Attiya, secretary-general of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.
The German chancellor, whose country holds the six-month European Union rotating presidency, has called for closer coordination between international initiatives on the Middle East.
“There should not be different signals coming from different continents,” Merkel told journalists in Cairo.
The so-called quartet of major diplomatic players – Russia, the United Nations, United States and European Union – met in Washington on Friday to revive their roadmap peace plan which has made next to no progress.
The quartet also renewed its boycott of the Islamist-led Palestinian government, saying it would only be lifted if the ruling Hamas recognises Israel’s right to exist, renounces violence and accepts past peace agreements.—AFP