Arab leaders will meet in Amman on Tuesday and Wednesday to reaffirm support for the Palestinians against Israel and to boost Arab unity. But moderate steps and half-way points in that direction are expected due to the controversial and complex nature of some key issues.
Though the Arab countries have vowed to inject more energy into the inter-Arab economic cooperation and integration, political issues will remain core issues of the Arab summit, the first regular annual event decided at the Cairo emergency summit last October.
The six-month Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the prospects of the stalled Middle East peace process in light of the transfer of power in Israel early this month and the United States in January, and the Iraq issue will top the political agenda.
Moderate Positions to Prevail on Palestinian Issue
Just as during the Cairo summit, held in the heyday of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the 22 Arab countries strongly condemned Israeli aggressions and blockade against the Palestinians and reaffirmed support for the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israel, but were divided over specific measures to counter the Jewish state and ways to support the Palestinians.
During the two-day foreign ministerial meetings ending on Sunday to prepare for the Amman summit, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Libya pressed for a joint Arab economic boycott to force Israel to stop violence against the Palestinians and restart the peace talks with Arab neighbors. But the proposal drew no positive response from other participants.
The draft resolution, finalized by the foreign ministers for the summit, indicated that moderate positions prevailed eventually. The resolution did not mention possible cutoff of ties with Israel as urged by some of the Arab states but rejected by the moderate camp represented by Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries which have signed peace treaties with Israel.
In addition, the boycott will not be discussed at the summit and the Arab League's Central Office for the Boycott of Israel was commissioned to look for ways of the ban next month when it convenes.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah al-Khatib said on Sunday after the closing session of the foreign ministerial meetings that the boycott would not be directed against Arab states, indicating that it is up to an individual state to decide the extent they would go.
On the Mideast peace process, the Arab states reiterated their commitment to peace as their strategic choice while urging the Israeli government to restart peace talks with its Arab neighbors from where they were left off and on the basis of the United Nations resolutions 242 and 338, which call for Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied Arab territories.
The draft resolution also called on the U.S. to "shoulder its responsibilities for the peace process on the basis of justice and neutrality," and asked the European Union and peace-loving nations to "play an active role in overcoming the hurdles blocking the path to peace."
But the Arabs expressed their indignation at U.S. announced intention to transfer its Embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, whose status is at the center of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
They said in the draft resolution that they will sever relations with any country that will take such a step.
As predicted in the run-up to the summit, the Arab states came up with relatively practical and concrete measures to support the Palestinians, who have been in clashes with the Israelis since last September due to Israeli violation of Islamic holy sites in East Jerusalem. The violence has left more than 430 people dead, most of them Palestinians.
The Arab countries have agreed to offer the money, promised at the Cairo summit under two funds of a total of 1 billion U.S. dollars, to the Palestinians as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, 40 million dollars will be sent every month to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in a six-month period to alleviate the plight of the Palestinians under sweeping Israeli siege.
In addition, they also accepted the Iraqi offer to provide 1 billion euros (938 million dollars) to the PNA from its oil revenues under the U.N. oil-for-food program that allows the sanction-stricken country to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other basic necessities.
Compromise Made on Iraq Issue
The Iraq issue, secondary to the bloody situation in the Palestinian territories, took up most of the time and energies of the foreign ministers at their meetings due to the renewal of ill- feelings between Iraq, on the one hand, and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, on the other.
Since Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, no direct talks have been conducted between the two neighbors to solve their feud, although efforts have been made in recent years to help achieve rapprochement between them and facilitate the return of Iraq to the Arab world.
In the final communique of the Islamic summit last November, the wording of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait was replaced by the "situation between Iraq and Kuwait," which had then been regarded as a big step toward Iraq-Kuwait rapprochement.
But ahead of the Amman summit, Kuwait vowed not to reach reconciliation with Iraq until Baghdad apologizes for its invasion and provides information on the prisoners of war, although it does not oppose an Arab call for the lifting of the U.N. sanctions against Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, another foe of Iraq, even downgraded its representation to the summit after the Iraq issue was decided to be put on the agenda of the summit.
The spat over the wording of the Iraq-Kuwait situation and whether to unconditionally call for the lifting of the sanctions against Iraq in the final resolution once led to the cancellation of a regular session of the foreign ministerial meetings. And the ministers then held bilateral and multilateral consultations to narrow differences.
Following the two days of consultations, an ad hoc committee was formed to work out a compromise formula and fine-tune the wording of the chapter of the draft resolution on the Iraq-Kuwait situation.
In addition, the parties have agreed to call for the lifting of economic sanctions while maintaining military embargo against Iraq.
Consultations on details of the chapter continued on Monday to make sure that matters will be mature before the summit, a Jordanian official said.
Move Towards Economic Integration
Arab industry and economy ministers held on Friday a day-long meeting to finalize an economic working paper, in which they will submit four major recommendations aimed at building sound inter- Arab trade relations with the accent on economic integration.
This was the first meeting of its kind in the history of the Arab summit, underlining Arab leaders' willingness to remove trade barriers and develop Arab economy in the globalization, given the fact that the inter-Arab trade accounts for only 8 percent of the total foreign trade volume of the Arab countries.
The recommendations call for the promotion of the inter-Arab trade, creation of an adequate climate to increase inter-Arab investment, merging Arab capital markets and developing transport, energy and communications, and eventually establishing an Arab free trade zone by 2007.
(Xinhua 03/27/2001)
