Newsletter No. 1426
News-Analysis
August 1, 2009

 

TATSUO ARIMA REPLACED AS ARAB-ISRAELI PEACE ENVOY

A statement at the MOFA website informs us that Tatsuo Arima, the familiar diplomat at the forefront of Japan’s Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts, was quietly replaced on July 15th by another diplomat named Yutaka Iimura. Arima had held the position of Special Envoy of the Government of Japan for the Middle East since May 2002—for over seven years.

For quite some time my impression of Arima was basically positive. He seemed to know the issues very well and his instincts seemed good. On the other hand, I also had the impression that he was basically isolated in the upper ranks of the Foreign Ministry. Arima would be dispatched here and there to make contact with the relevant parties and lend a sympathetic ear, but when he returned to Tokyo with fresh new advice and ideas, he met a wall of indifference as his colleagues refused to do anything that might upstage or antagonize Washington.

In the end, I’m not sure that Arima really accomplished much. He ultimately functioned as part of the “peace process industry”—the main purpose of which has been to provide the illusion of the advancement of peace negotiations while giving the Israeli government sufficient time to change the demographic realities on the ground to suit its own purposes.

Anyway, the man in Arima’s old position is Yutaka Iimura, a diplomat who featured in a couple of early Shingetsu Newsletters as an ambassador to Indonesia. More recently, he has been the ambassador to France. What qualifications does he have to lead Arab-Israeli peace negotiations? I really don’t know; perhaps this will become clearer later on.

Special Envoy Iimura is departing from Narita Airport today on his introductory tour. He will visit Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, Jordan, and Syria. MOFA announces his schedule as follows:

August 1 (Sat) Depart from Narita
August 2 (Sun) Arrive at Cairo
August 3 (Mon) Arrive at Tel Aviv
August 8 (Sat) Arrive at Amman
August 9 (Sun) Arrive at Damascus
August 13 (Thu) Arrive at Narita

Let’s hope that there are more positive developments on Iimura’s watch than there were on Arima’s.