Arab leaders endorsed a Saudi peace plan offering Israel "normal relations" in exchange for withdrawal from all occupied Arab land, Lebanon's foreign minister announced Thursday at an Arab summit.
The Qatari Al Jazzera television station reported Thursday that a disagreement between the Palestinian and Lebanese delegation over the subject of right of return delayed the opening of Thursday morning's meeting.
Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, vehemently opposed to the inclusion of a demand to establish permanent places of residence to Palestinians who are now living in refugee camps, in the concluding paper of the summit. Lahoud said this demand was in violation of the Lebanese constitution.
The Palestinian delegation also rejected the demand, but feared that if Lebanon's objection was accepted, Israel would be able to take advantage of the precedent in its objection to the Palestinian's right of return to Israel. The Qatari station reported that the sides agreed to mention in the final document the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland.
Arab leaders did not release a text of the formal resolution, which host Lebanon said the Arab leaders had taken a unified stand in endorsing the plan which also demanded a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud said that once Israel fulfills the Arab demands, "the Arab-Israeli conflict would be considered finished and (the parties) would enter into a peace treaty and achieving security for all countries of the region and establish normal relations with Israel."
Prince Saud al Faisal, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, told a news conference, "This is the way toward security ... Israel can't keep the land and want security at the same time. It has to withdraw and give the Palestinian their rights.
"If Israel does that, the Arab states will put an end to the state of war. That will give Israel its security."
Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah presented his proposal for a comprehensive land-for-peace pact with Israel on Wednesday at the opening of the two-day summit, which was marred by the absence of key players and a Palestinian delegation walkout, AP reported.
A committee drafting the language has finalized a text that has the approval of all 22 members of the Arab League, a Lebanese government official said on condition of anonymity. He gave no specifics, but the full summit convened later Thursday to formally endorse the proposal.
A walkout by the Palestinian delegation over a speech by Yasser Arafat threatened to derail the summit Wednesday. The Palestinian leader, who remained in the West Bank, had been planned to address the summit by video Thursday, but Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath told reporters his speech simply would be entered into the record instead. Shaath did not say why.
When Arafat was prevented from speaking Wednesday he turned to Al-Jazeera satellite television and delivered a speech welcoming the Saudi initiative.
But the dispute between the Palestinian delegation and Lebanon overshadowed the gathering Wednesday. The Palestinian delegation walked out of the opening session to protest over Lebanon's refusal to air Arafat's speech from Ramallah live via satellite. The Palestinians did not return for the afternoon session.
The Lebanese newspaper Al Mustaqbal reported Thursday that Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq al Hariri, convinced the Palestinian team not to withdraw from the summit.
The London-based Arab language daily newspaper Al Hayat reported Thursday that at the end of the summit the kings of Morocco and Bahrain will leave for Jordan to meet with Jordanian King Abdullah to discuss the summit's decisions.
Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates downgraded its representation at the summit break in solidarity with the Palestinians and its vice president headed home.
Meanwhile, the No. 2 in the Saudi delegation, intelligence chief Prince Nawaf, remained in intensive care Thursday after being hospitalized during the summit break Wednesday with a brain hemorrhage and operated on, Lebanese officials said.
Israel
Israel rejected the Saudi-inspired plan for Middle East peace that was endorsed by Arab leaders on Thursday, saying it was a "non-starter" in its current form.
"The Saudi initiative as it was presented by the summit of the Arab League represents a non-starter," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon after the Arab leaders embraced the proposal at a summit in Beirut.
"We cannot accept on the one hand to have negotiations for the creation of a Palestinian state, an independent Palestinian state, and on the other hand have all the Palestinians come into Israel," he told Reuters. "This means the destruction of the state of Israel and obviously we cannot agree."
(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
