Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in Beirut on Sunday that the kingdom has finished drafting a Middle East peace initiative to be presented to this week's Arab summit in the Lebanese capital.
"The initiative has been written for a while and the (Saudi crown prince) will submit it to participants of the summit when he comes in Beirut," the prince told reporters after a meeting with Lebanon’s President Emile Lahoud.
Asked whether US backing will be needed to push Israel to respond to the Saudi initiative, the prince said, "this will be decided during the summit."
The prince arrived in Lebanon earlier Sunday and went straight to the presidential palace for talks with Lahoud, in the presence of Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud.
Demonstration
Syrian protesters took to the streets of the central square of Damascus Sunday, chanting insults at Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and urging Arab leaders who are due to hold the summit Wednesday to take tough stands on the Palestinian uprising and US support for Israel.
"You, Sharon! Butcher Sharon! Your blood will be shed by Arabs!" the crowd chanted.
According to AP, the Syrian government closed schools and public offices so that students and civil servants could join the marches, which converged on Omayyad Square, filling it completely.
State radio and television devoted its programming to the demonstration and the Palestinian uprising. They also broadcast rousing nationalistic songs, AP added.
Hundreds of riot police closed the streets leading to the nearby US embassy to prevent a recurrence of the violence in October 2000 when pro-Palestinian demonstrators hurled various items into the embassy compound. "Boycott American goods," protesters yelled. They also burned an American flag.
Syrians, as with many Arabs, regard Washington's Middle East policy as heavily biased toward Israel.
The demonstration was organized by a fund-raising group called the Syrian Permanent Popular Committee for Supporting the Uprising and was supported by the ruling Ba’ath party and six allied parties.
"We reject normalization with Israel and Israel will never be able to stop the uprising," the committee chairman, former Major General Ahmed Abdul Kareem, told the demonstrators.
He called on the Arab leaders who are scheduled to meet to "take decisions capable of forcing the Zionist enemy to withdraw its troops from all occupied Arab lands and dismantle Israeli settlements."
Referring to one of the Palestinian demands that Israel finds unacceptable, he said, "We demand the return of all Palestinian refugees to their homeland."
"The masses tell the summit - the uprising represents Arab honor and dignity, and Iraq is in the heart of the Arab nation," read a banner at the rally, warning against US steps to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
As'ad Fidha, a well-known Syrian actor, said he took part in the demonstration because "it is high time to stop the inhumane practices conducted against our (Arab) people in Israel." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
