Diplomatic ballet on Mideast to take place in Paris this weekend

A veritable diplomatic ballet on the Middle East is to take place in Paris this weekend, bringing together ministers and senior officials from eight Arab countries, who will meet in various formats with US Secretary-of-State John Kerry and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, official and diplomatic sources said Friday. The French Foreign Ministry confirmed that Kerry and Fabius will hold bilateral talks on Saturday and that talks are also planned here with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-Araby and a host of ministers and officials from Gulf and Arab countries. Details still remained sketchy on the level of participation by some nations, but delegations will definitely come from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority. The full list of participants is to be released later but an informed source said there would be at least four Arab Foreign Ministers. The French Foreign Ministry said that the talks between Kerry and Fabius would focus on the Middle East peace process and the situation in Syria. Kerry will also be meeting with the Arab participants to discuss developments in the revived peace process which he has been trying to bolster, making six visits to the region. The two senior officials will also review the aftermath of the G20 meeting in Saint Petersburg and also an "informal" meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Lithuania this weekend, which is expected to be also attended by Kerry at some stage. France will be calling on the other 27 EU ministers to join in a strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and also will urge them to condemn the regime of Bashar Al-Assad, which Paris and London claim was behind a massive chemical weapons attack near Damascus on August 21. The US and Syrian opposition sources claim over 1,400 people, mainly civilians, died in that attack and independent humanitarian sources said they saw close to 400 fatalities. Al-Assad denies any use of chemical weapons and says the opposition rebels were responsible. But several EU countries are reticent to take a strong stance against Al-Assad as they claim the evidence is not sufficient against him and they want the UN to provide clear proof of who was behind the attack, a job not mandated to the UN inspectors who are compiling a report on the August 21 massacre. Several countries also say that the divided UN Security Council must authorise any strike against the Syrian regime, a strike the US and France have been threatening to carry out. French sources said that there would also be a number of bilateral meetings in the coming days between Fabius and some of the Arab ministers attending the talks this weekend. Already known is a bilateral meeting Monday between Fabius and Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy.