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Arab Countries End Meeting with "Ineffective and Infirm Resolutions"
CAIRO, Aug 23 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers ended meetings in Cairo Wednesday with what they admitted was "disappointing results" and called on Washington to stop supplying Israel with offensive weapons, news agencies reported Thursday.
"We don't want to give people false hope, the resolutions are not effective and firm, but it's only one step," Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani, whose his country heads the current foreign ministers' meeting in the Arab League, later told a press conference, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Arab League ministers said in a statement they would make the demand to the U.S.
They also introduced other measures designed to pressure Israel to end nearly 11 months of violence in the Occupied Territories.
The foreign ministers notably agreed to try and reactivate a boycott of Israeli products, which some estimates suggest could cost Israel three billion dollars per year.
The foreign ministers also called on Arab countries "not [to] initiate contacts with Israel," but still authorized Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with Israel, to continue their links.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, in a special meeting with the ministers, had called for stricter measures against Israel in order to threaten Israel with economic and political sanctions.
Al-Thani commented that boycotting Israel is not as easy as it sounds, pointing out that some Arab countries are obliged to fulfill contracts signed between their government and multinational companies, some of whom have offices in Israel.
He added: "It is dangerous to threaten the American economic interests in the Arab world, [e]specially when there are many Arab countries that receive U.S. aids."
Qatar, which has relations with Israel, temporarily froze ties with Israel last November on the eve of an Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit in Doha, closing the trade office during the meeting. The move was made after criticism from Arab and Islamic countries, many threatening not to attend the summit.
Qatar is also being criticized for allowing an Israeli delegation to attend an upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting planned for November 9-13, in Doha.
"Qatar is not empowered to say who is and who is not taking part in the conference. The issue of participation is dealt with by the WTO," Sheikh Hamad said earlier in July.
"Let us be honest with ourselves, this is an economic conference and not political one, the participating countries are [going to] be represented by economists and technical specialists; all Arab countries know that the international organization laws does not permit mixing between the economic interests and political conflicts," he added.
However, al-Thani stressed Qatar's supportive stance towards the Palestinians.
In a press conference following Wednesday's meeting, al-Thani urged all Arab countries to attend a special boycott meeting in Damascus between October 7th and 11th, without elaborating on what results could be expected from the meeting.
According to Arab officials, the proceedings, which stretched 10 hours with a three-hour break, were marked by persistent disagreements among members over which direction to take in support of the Palestinians.
One diplomatic source told AFP that some unnamed Arab countries had rejected the proposal to halt all economic and political relations with the Jewish state, despite strong support from Syria.
Other countries said that their contacts with Israel were justified in the framework in bringing about a peace settlement, the source said, a position often taken by Egypt.
Arafat also called during the first session for an "international initiative of the U.N. Security Council," which met on August 20th for the first time on the Middle East issue since March 27th, when the United States vetoed a resolution to send international observers to the Palestinian territories.
Arafat also called on the international community "to assume its responsibilities and send international observers to our territories to apply U.N. resolutions, the Mitchell report and the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative."
The U.N. has adopted a number of resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, and for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.
The Mitchell report and Egyptian-Jordanian initiative are both recent efforts aimed at bringing a halt to Israeli-Palestinian violence and getting the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Arafat, who later left for India to start a mini-Asian tour, also chided ministers for the lukewarm support their countries had provided so far.
"Two Arab summits since the September 28th beginning of the Palestinian uprising have not had any tangible result except for financial commitments which have only been partially honored," he said.
Following his remarks, Arafat left Cairo on the start of an Asian tour that will take him to India, Pakistan and China.
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