|
Arab Politicians Reject Bin Laden's Call to Arms, Support Palestinians
DAMASCUS, Nov 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab politicians and the highest authority in Sunni Islam rejected Sunday a call from Osama bin Laden for Muslims to join in a "religious war" against the Christian West, and called for international action to ensure the creation of a Palestinian state, saying verbal promises no longer sufficed.
"We warn against any political fraud of which the Arabs would be victim if a peace process, whose content and aims remain unknown, is launched," Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said at a committee meeting of Arab foreign ministers, charged with the dossier of the Palestinian uprising, or Intifada.
Mussa warned: "A peace process must have content and its aim must be the establishment of a Palestinian state."
U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have recently issued statements favoring the establishment of a Palestinian state, while stopping short of concrete details.
"We will not wait 10 more years, statements alone are not enough, they must be backed up on the ground," Mussa added, referring to the 1993 Oslo accords, which have failed to produce the hoped-for results.
Mussa's fiery remarks colored the debate among Arab diplomats on the final day of this two-day session on how Arab states could take advantage of Washington's need to court Arab states for its war on terror.
Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib sounded a constructive note.
"We have witnessed an international consensus," Khatib said, alluding to Bush's pronouncement last month that a Palestinian state was part of the U.S. vision for the Middle East.
"The Arabs must now work together to realize this vision," Khatib said.
But Arab states are suspicious that the United States and Europe will turn their back on the Palestinians, once the U.S.-led war on terror has achieved its objectives, Arab diplomatic sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Arab leaders are currently negotiating a meeting between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Bush on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York next week.
Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath said such a meeting "was possible."
If so, it would be the first meeting between Bush and Arafat since the U.S. president came to power last January. Bush has already met twice with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said such a meeting "will serve the Palestinian cause."
In other matters, the 10 Arab foreign ministers warned the United States not to expand its war on terror from Afghanistan to any Arab countries.
Mussa said it was "inconceivable for Arabs to join a [anti-terror] coalition that would target an Arab country. It's our unshakeable position."
The ministers also denounced "international terrorism" and refused any attempt by the West to hold Arabs responsible for the September 11 attack on New York and Washington.
"Bin Laden does not speak in the name of the Arabs and Muslims," Mussa told journalists in Damascus.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, for his part, said there was "a war between bin Laden and the world," in answer to a question on bin Laden's comments broadcast the previous day by the Qatari-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.
In the video-taped recording, bin Laden, number one suspect for the September 11 attacks, said: "It is fundamentally a question of a religious war ... the peoples of the East being Muslims, and those of the West being Christians."
He called on Muslims to "defend their religion and their brothers in Afghanistan" against the "crusade" being led by the United States.
The Afghan-based bin Laden also lashed at the United Nations, describing secretary general Kofi Annan as a "criminal" and branding those Arab leaders who deal with the U.N. as non-believers.
The Cairo-based al-Azhar institute, the highest Sunni Muslim authority, rejected all "religious wars" in an indirect response to bin Laden's appeal.
The al-Azhar Center for Islamic studies expressed its opposition to the "claims of conflict between civilizations, a war of religions and a conflict between cultures," a statement quoted by the Egyptian news agency MENA said.
The religious institute did not explicitly refer to the comments of bin Laden.
Al-Azhar also said in its statement that, "the war against terrorism does not justify aggression against the poor and unarmed people of Afghanistan."
"Towns, villages, mosques, old men, women and children of this people are exposed to violent aggression, without any logical or acceptable reason, and even before the conclusions of the inquiry into the events of last September," it said.
Jordan's al-Khatib also criticized bin Laden for rallying the Muslim masses to a war.
"The concept presented of Arab-Muslim civilization in conflict with the rest of the world is very dangerous and carries great danger for all Arabs and their interests.
"We must be very vigilant and we must not allow these concepts to largely come to pass," he told reporters gathered at the Arab League meeting.
"We face an international situation that demands much vigilance," he added, so that Arabs and Muslims "do not bear the repercussions of the [terrorists] causes."
U.N. special representative to Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, for his part, did not "wish to respond" to accusations raised by bin Laden against the United Nations, his spokesman Eric Falt told AFP on Sunday.
"Mr. Brahimi does not wish to respond to this" accusation, Falt said in Tehran, refusing to make any further comment.
The committee of foreign ministers was formed last October at the start of the Intifada.
It groups Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen, in addition to a representative from the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League chief.
|
