Scenarios and Models of the Middle East settlement
Malta, December 9-10, 2010

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The second international conference of the Middle East section of the Valdai Discussion Club "Scenarios and Models of the Middle East settlement" was held in Malta on December 9-10. The conference gathered 51 worldwide known experts on the Middle East from Egypt, Israel, Malta, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Russia, Sweden, the UK and the USA as well as from the UN and the Arab League who discussed the prospects and opportunities of reducing the tension in the region.

The first such conference, held in December 2009 in Jordan, considered the prospects of building a regional security system. According to participants, that forum marked “Russia’s return to the Middle East, highlighting the country’s contribution to sustaining peace negotiations” in this troubled region. It also reaffirmed the critical importance of an Arab-Israeli peace settlement to peace and stability in the broader Middle East.

The aim of the Malta conference was to find new solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict and to elaborate on existing proposals.

Among the themes brought up on the conference were the opportunities for reducing tensions and promoting peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine and the broader dimensions of the conflict regarding the roles Syria, Lebanon and Israel play. Focusing on the role of regional and extra-regional actors and prospects for international cooperation, the experts agreed that all the parties understand that the peace process reached a dead-end and underlined a pressing need for the new ideas.

Despite the unanimous resolution by a wide panel of experts from academia, think-tanks, NGOs and government that the peace process has reached a stalemate, among the reasons for which several speakers mentioned Israeli policy that was designed to preserve the status quo, prospects for reaching the long-awaited settlement are bleak but visible.

One of the top conference participants, Evgeny Primakov, the leading Russian Middle East expert with a former prime minister and foreign minister record expressed the mutual opinion that the international efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement are to be postponed until the circumstances would allow the real progress to be made.

Supported by other participants of the conference he suggested to attempt breaking the deadlock by strengthening the international effort. This Primakov argued could be achieved by expanding the Quartet of the mediators to include regional leaders, as well as countries such as China and India.
Jorge Sampaio, the High Representative of the UN Secretary-General for the Alliance of Civilizations, called on participants to pay special attention to the human element in the effort to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He presented a project to create a special international mechanism that would generate and coordinate efforts aimed at building confidence between the

Israelis and the Palestinians and overcoming mutual hostility.
Former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Harold Saunders also argued for more citizen diplomacy to foster a mentality of peace among Palestinians and Israelis. As a model worthy of emulation, the experts cited Northern Ireland, which implemented more than 500 programs to improve inter-community trust.

According to the experts, greater Russian participation would also be welcome in the peace process, which is now widely regarded as being streamlined by the Americans. Russia can bring to the table its constructive relationship with all parties to the conflict, including those like Hamas and Hezbollah, which are not seen in the West as legitimate partners. A number of foreign experts went as far as calling on Russia to take the place of the United States, as the locomotive of the international effort in the region.

Russian participants, however, played down this idea, seeing Russia's role as to “reinforce, not replace.” Russia, as they agreed, should increase its participation in the Middle East peace process in cooperation with the U.S placing emphasis on the work of the Quartet.

The conference was hailed as another sign of Russia’s growing interest in the Middle East issues and of activization of its policy in the region. The discussions and conclusions of the experts gathered in Malta are very timely and important, given the current stalemate in the peace process, the conference participants concluded.

The conference was organized by the Russian News and Information agency RIA Novosti, the Institute of Oriental studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Council on Foreign and Defense policy.

PROGRAM

December 8, Wednesday

During the day     Participants’ arrival, transfer to the hotel
 19:00     Conference moderators’ meeting
 20:00     Welcome dinner in the hotel

December 9, Thursday

09:00     Guests’ registration
09:30–10:15     Opening of the conference
Address by Evgeny Primakov
Address by Michael Frendo
Address by Jorge Sampaio

10:15–11:40     First Plenary Session:
“Problems and prospects for the Middle East settlement: is there a need for new ideas?”

Open discussion

12:10–13:30     First Plenary Session, continued

Open discussion

THE TWO SECTIONS WILL RUN PARALLEL SESSIONS

14:30–16:30     First Section:
“Israeli-Palestinian relations: is there any light at the end of the tunnel?”

Open discussion

16:50–17:30     First Section, continued

Open discussion

14:30–16:30     Second Section:
“Syria, Lebanon, Israel – what is next?”

Open discussion

16:50–17:30     Second Section, continued (Ballroom 2)

Open discussion


December 10, Friday

09:30–11:40     Second Plenary Session:
“The role of global and regional actors: separately or together?”

Open discussion

12:10–14:00     Second Plenary Session, continued

Open discussion

15:00–17:00     Closing session:
“Guidelines for Russia” (Ballroom 1)

December 11, Saturday

Participants’ departure

PARTICIPANTS

Sufyan ABU ZAYDA / Palestine
Head, Culture of Peace Committee, PLO Negotiations Affairs Department

Taha ADAM / Egypt
Advisor, Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies; General Manager, Al-Ahram Foundation; Ex-Chairman of the Board, State Information Service of Egypt

Alexander AKSENENOK / Russia
Managing Director, Vnesheconombank; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Association of the Russian Diplomats

Abdulrahman AL SALMI / Sultanate of Oman
Editor-in-Chief, Al Tasamoh Magazine

Sheikh Taysir AL-TAMIMI / Palestine
Secretary General, Islamic High Commission – Jerusalem

Abdelkebir ALAOUI MEDEGHRI / Morocco
Director General, Bayt Mal Al Quds Asharief Agency

Abdullah BAABOOD / United Kingdom
Director, Gulf Research Centre, University of Cambridge

Alexander BABINSKY / Russia
Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Andrey BAKLANOV / Russia
Chief, International Affairs Department, Council of the Federation, Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Deputy Chairman, Association of the Russian Diplomats

Gershon BASKIN / Israel
Co-Chief Executive Officer, Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information (IPCRI)

Shlomo BEN AMI / Israel
Vice-President, International Centre for Peace; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Yehuda BEN MEIR / Israel
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)

Rodric BRAITHWAITE / United Kingdom
Chairman, International Advisory Board, Moscow School of Political Studies; Former Ambassador to Russia

Shlomo BROM / Israel
Senior Research Associate, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)

Ariel COHEN / United States of America
Senior Research Fellow, Heritage Foundation

Rami DAJANI / Palestine
Legal & Policy Consultant, Middle East Security

Rakhamim EMANUILOV / Russia
Political Advisor to the Chairman of the Council of the Federation, Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Head, Civilizations Interaction Group, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Mohamed EZZEDDINE ABDEL-MONIEM / League of the Arab States
Ambassador, Senior Adviser to Secretary General, League of the Arab States

Michael FRENDO / Malta
Speaker of the House of Representatives

Shalom HARARI / Israel
Senior Research Fellow, International Institute of Counter Terrorism (ICT)

Raed JABER / Russia
Editor-in-Chief, Anbaa Mosku newspaper

Rateb JOUDEH / Russia
Chief Editor, Anbaa Mosku website

Alexander KALUGIN / Russia
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Anton KHLOPKOV / Russia
Director, Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS); Editor-in-Chief, Nuclear Club journal

Zvi MAGEN / Israel
Research Fellow, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)

Mikhail MARGELOV / Russia
MP, Chairman, Committee for Foreign Affairs, Council of the Federation, Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation; Russian President’s special envoy to Sudan

Mathias MOSSBERG / Sweden
Ambassador, Senior Fellow, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University

Vitaly NAUMKIN / Russia
Director, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Tatiana NOSENKO / Russia
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Alexey PILKO / Russia
Adviser to the Editor-in-Chief, Russian News and Information Agency “RIA Novosti”

Veniamin POPOV / Russia
Director, Centre for Partnership of Civilizations, Moscow State Institution of International Relations; Ambassador

Evgeny PRIMAKOV / Russia
President, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation; Former Prime Minister; Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

Sahar F. QAWASMI / Palestine
MP, Palestinian Legislation Council

Francesca GATT / Malta
First Secretary, Union for the Mediterranean desk officer, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Michael RUBIN / United States of America
Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institution; Lecturer, National Security Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Jorge SAMPAIO / United Nations
High Representative of Secretary General of the United Nations for the Alliance of Civilizations; Former President of Portugal

Hal SAUNDERS / United States of America
President, International Institute for Sustained Dialogue; Former Assistant Secretary of State

Patrick SEALE / United Kingdom
Writer, journalist, lecturer and consultant on Middle East affairs

Valery SHAGEEV / Russia
Head, International Department, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences

Alla SHAINSKAYA / Israel
Board Member, B’Tselem; Member, Executive Committee, Meretz Party

Mohamed SHAKER / Egypt
Chairman of the Board, Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs; Ambassador

Rami TAHBOUB / Palestine
First Counsellor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Mustapha TLILI / United States of America
Director and Founder, Centre for Dialogues: Islamic World – US – The West, New York University

Mandy TURNER / United Kingdom
Lecturer in conflict resolution, Peace Studies, University of Bradford

Monika WOHLFELD / Malta
The Holder of the German Chair in Confl ict Prevention and Peace Studies at the University of Malta

Ehud YAARI / Israel
Middle East Commentator, Channel 2 News

Irina ZVYAGELSKAYA / Russia
Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences