For
immediate release
3
July 2007
PRESS
COMMUNIQUE - COMMUNIQUE PRESSE
NATO PARLIAMENTARIANS DISCUSS SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE
EAST
Some 40 members
of parliament from NATO and Mediterranean partner countries met in
Naples from 1-2 July to
discuss security issues in the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA)
region. Legislators from Algeria,
Israel and
Jordan participated in
the meeting, organized in co-operation with the Italian
parliament.
On the first day,
discussions focused on the situation in
Iran and
Lebanon. Professor Ali
Reza Sheikholeslami of the American
University, Sharjah, UAE,
gave a detailed account of the internal political situation in the Islamic
Republic of Iran, while Professor Maurizio Martellini of Italian think-tank
Landau Network-Centro Volta analysed the question of
TehranÂ’s nuclear
programme. The crisis in Lebanon and the
international efforts to deal with it were debated with contributions by
Giovanni Lorenzo Forcieri, ItalyÂ’s Deputy
Minister of Defence, Elisabeth Picard, Research Director at FranceÂ’s CNRS, and
Issa Goraieb, columnist for the Beirut daily LÂ’Orient-le Jour.
Sessions on the
second day addressed the role and development of civil society and media in the
MENA region, as well as recent developments in the NATO Mediterranean Dialogue
(MD) and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). Thomas McGrath, responsible for
Media, Communication and Information for the EuroMed programme at the European
Commission, described the EU strategy to promote freedom of expression and media
independence throughout the region. Ambassador Mahmoud Kassem of the Ibn
Khaldoun Center in Cairo,
Egypt, described
efforts to develop civil society in the MENA region as a whole, while the
specific circumstances of Palestinian civil society were outlined by Ms Lilian
Feidy, Secretary General of the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of
Global Dialogue and Democracy.
In the final
session, Alberto Bin of NATOÂ’s Political Affairs and Security Policy Division
informed NATO PA members of the recent NATO Training Cooperation Initiative
towards MD and ICI countries. Rear Admiral Tony Rix, Chief of Staff, CC
Mar/AFSOUTH, briefed participants about recent political and military
development with regard to Operation Active Endeavour in the
Mediterranean.
[NOTE:
Presentations from this seminar are available on this
website]
For
further information, please contact
e-mail:
Press@nato-pa.int
NATO
Parliamentary Assembly
Place
du Petit Sablon 3, 1000 Brussels,
Belgium
Tél:
(32) 2 513 28 65 | Fax: (32) 2 514 18 47 |
website:
http:// www.nato-pa.int
|
Background
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, founded
in 1955 with a Brussels-based secretariat,
brings
together 248 national parliamentarians from the 26 NATO countries.
In
addition, 16 associate delegations from Central and
Eastern
Europe,
Ukraine
and Russia;
5 Mediterranean
Associate delegations: Morocco,
Algeria,
Jordan,
Mauritania
and Israel
and
6 Parliamentary Observer delegations participate in Assembly activities and
meetings.