France cancels regional talks after Egyptian representative refuses to sit next to Lieberman

France decided yesterday to postpone a conference of the foreign ministers of the Union for the Mediterranean, after Egypt said it would not participate if Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was among the delegates. France and Egypt have shared presidency of the union since 2008.

France has been pressuring the Egyptians to attend the conference regardless, to no avail. One of the proposals went as far as to suggest elevating the rank of the conference to a prime-ministerial summit. This would resolve the conflict, as Egypt does not boycott Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, the proposal is not yet complete and has not been officially presented to the member states.

Egypt, Jordan and other Arab states have been boycotting Lieberman since he took office, with the rare exception of summits between the foreign minister and his Morrocan counterpart during the UN General Assembly, and a meeting with Egyptian chief of intelligence General Omar Suleiman.

Egypt's particular ire against Lieberman has been provoked by several remarks the minister made in the past. In 2008, Lieberman, then in the Knesset opposition, criticized Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for not visiting Israel, adding that if Mubarak didn't want to talk directly to Israelis, he could "go to hell."

Then-prime minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres apologized to Egypt, prompting Lieberman to accuse them of acting "like battered wives."

In 1998, Lieberman proposed bombing the Aswan Dam - a key Egyptian national infrastructure site which provides vast quantities of electricity and regulates Nile floods.

Last week, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, that Egypt would not attend a conference with Lieberman. Sources close to the conference organizers said the Egyptian minister was adamant.

"I'm not coming if Lieberman is there," he told Kouchner. "Forget it. I won't sit at a table with him, or even be seen in the same room."

The Union for the Mediterranean was set up by French president Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, as a new iteration of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.

The union aims to promote economic, scientific and cultural projects in states on the Mediterranean.