JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday insisted he would go to the Mediterranean summit in Spain despite a reported Arab threat to boycott the talks over his attendance.
"I am intending to be there and I will be there," the hawkish minister told Israel public radio in an interview from Japan where he was on a five-day tour.
According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Egypt and Syria have told the Spanish hosts of the Mediterranean summit that they will not attend the talks if Lieberman goes.
Other Arab countries have followed suit, saying they will not show up if Lieberman goes to the summit which is due to take place in Barcelona on June 7, the paper said.
"This is a slap in the face for Spain," said Lieberman, who is to attend the talks alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"We don’t tell Syria who to send and no-one can tell us who should attend as part of the Israeli delegation," he said. "We don’t boycott anyone and as for those that won’t attend — that’s their problem."
Relations between Israel and Egypt, which signed a peace treaty in 1979, have deteriorated since Lieberman, who heads the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, was named foreign minister.
Last year, he enraged Cairo by saying Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could "go to hell" if he continued to refuse to visit Israel.
Lieberman’s hardline stance has also raised concerns about the fate of the Middle East peace process.
The 43-nation Mediterranean Union, whose headquarters is in Barcelona, was established in 2008 in Paris by France and Egypt.
It groups all 27 EU member states alongside countries in North Africa, the Balkans, Israel and the Arab world in a bid to foster cooperation in one of the world’s most volatile regions.
