Last update - 00:00 31/07/2007
Arab League welcomes 'positive elements' of Bush plan for Mideast
By News Agencies
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said Monday that members of the body welcomed the "positive elements" of a new Middle East initiative by U.S. President George W. Bush, especially those related to "founding an independent Palestine state, his call for ending the Israeli settlements and ending the Israeli occupation."
In a statement issued after the talks, the League said it "supports convening a meeting or a conference with the participation of all parties concerned with the peace process, in order to launch talks on all tracks."
"Peace cannot be completed without withdrawal from Syrian territory, so all the parties have to be there," Moussa told a press conference in Egypt after the talks.
During the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. A recent peace initiative devised by Saudi Arabia and adopted by the Arab League calls for normalized ties with Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the lands captured in the war.
"Any international gathering has to be comprehensive, a serious one, and the agenda has to be considered carefully. It should include all those involved in the conflict and the time frame must be defined," Moussa said.
But, he conceded, "There are other points that Syria sees as dangerous, which our resolution avoided, not considering them as positive."
Foreign ministers from 16 Arab states met in Egypt on Monday to discuss Middle East peace efforts. Also on the agenda were recent efforts by League representatives to rally support for an Arab peace initiative, the group said in a draft statement earlier Monday.
The Syrian representative at the meeting, Youssef Ahmed, told reporters that the priority should be to achieve reconciliation between Palestinian factions.
"I expressed reservations about any form of welcome for what is called U.S. President George Bush's initiative because we in Syria believe that discussing the Palestinian issue in the meeting under the current state of Palestinian schism... would lead to killing off the Palestinian cause," he said.
Ahmed later stormed out of the talks. Delegates said that he left the meeting to protest the fact that Arabs were even agreeing to discuss Bush's proposal. "The suggested conference will liquidate the Palestinian cause," delegates quoted him as saying.
Observers said there was surprise that Syria was not represented at the meeting by its foreign minister - apparently concerned that the Arab ministers might back the American view after Bush ignored Syria in his initiative to hold a Middle East peace conference in the fall.
During the Monday meeting, Moussa reported on the outcome of the group's efforts over the past two months to promote the Arab peace initiative.
Eight of the Arab ministers - from Egypt, Jordan and the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries - will meet U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday to talk about the conference.
An Arab diplomat in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sides were still trying to work out what such a meeting might do for peace, especially as the Bush administration has only 17 months left in office.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and his Jordanian counterpart, Abdelelah Al-Khatib, visited Israel last week to formally present the initiative. Aboul Gheit, upon his return to Egypt, speculated that other Arab countries may join in future contacts with Israel.
Moussa said Sunday that the conference should be sponsored by either the UN or the Quartet of Middle East peace brokers, made up of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia.