Strategist sees talks bringing truce but not peace

CAIRO [MENL] -- A leading European strategist says Arab states might sign peace treaties with Israel but they will not abandon their goal of conquering Israel.

Jean Paul Sharni, the director of the strategies philosophy center at the French Sorbonne University, said the Arabs will at the most agree to a truce with Israel. But that will not dash the hopes to return to Palestine one day.

Speaking to the influential London-based Al Wasat weekly, Sharni said any Israeli peace treaty with Lebanon and Syria will not remove the underlying cause for the conflict. He said Syria and Lebanon felt they had to end the tension to end the cycle of war that often caught the two countries by surprise.

"Arab officials will keep in their minds the idea which says Palestine is Arab," he said. "They will also keep hoping Palestine will come back one day to the Arabs."

Sharni said that in the long run Israel will face severe difficulties in surviving in the Middle East.

The professor called for greater European involvement in the Middle East. He blamed the lack of a European defense or foreign policy for its marginal role in the region.

"It is regrettable to have Europe absent from this region," he said. "When I express my regret, I also say it might be the hard luck of the Arabs that Europe will be absent from vital issues pertaining to the Middle East."