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Arab
Diplomatic Meetings In Preparation For Upcoming Summit
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| Egyptians demonstrate in
support of Palestinian Intifada |
CAIRO,
March 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab League Secretary General Amr
Mussa left Cairo Monday for Saudi Arabia to discuss the Middle East peace
proposals of Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, airport sources said.
Quoted
by the Egyptian news agency MENA, Mussa said he would talk with the crown
prince, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
Prince
Abdullah revealed last February 17 that he supported Arab recognition of Israel
in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in the
1967 Middle East war, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
He
is expected to propose the idea at the Arab summit in Beirut later this month,
but while it has been approved by some states, others are more critical, in
particular because it seems to leave out such questions as the right of return
for Palestinian refugees.
Mussa
said he would also pass on to Saudi leaders the "impressions" of
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi concerning the position of the Arabs and his ideas
for settling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
On
Saturday Kadhafi revealed his own tougher conditions for peace with Israel and
threatened to pull out of the Arab League, sending Mussa scurrying to Libya in a
bid to make him change his mind.
Mussa
told reporters that Libya would take part in the summit in the Lebanese capital,
set for March 27-28, after returning from an urgent mission to the eastern
Libyan city of Syrte to urge Kadhafi to back down on his threat.
Mussa
said the results of his meetings with Kadhafi regarding Libya's ties with the
Arab League were "precise" and "clear," but did not
elaborate on who would represent Libya at the meetings.
Libya
will also participate in the meeting of Arab foreign ministers scheduled for
March 9-10 at the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo, Mussa said, quoted by the
state-run MENA press agency.
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad arrived Sunday in Lebanon on his first visit as head
of state for talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud ahead of this month's
Summit in Beirut.
The
surprise visit was only announced by Lebanon late Saturday, while the Syrian
media made no mention of it until Assad's arrival, which was shown live on
Syrian state television.
Lebanon's
state-run Tele-Liban said Saturday that the visit would allow Assad and Lahoud
to coordinate positions ahead of the Arab summit, which will be hosted by
Lebanon on March 27 and 28.
After
their talks, Lahoud and Assad will co-chair a meeting of the joint supreme
council for cooperation between the two countries, which has only met three
times before, each time in Syria.
Meanwhile,
Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian Minister for International Cooperation, said
Sunday that there is a "high" chance Palestinian President Yasser
Arafat, under virtual house arrest by the Israeli occupation forces, will attend
the summit.
"My
understanding is that if Arafat did not attend the summit, the (Saudi) peace
initiative will not be discussed," the Palestinian Minister for
International Cooperation, Nabil Shaath, told AFP.
"The
possibility of Arafat attending the summit is high, but not 100 percent
certain," he said after talks with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul
Aziz, who recently floated ideas for a land-for-peace settlement between Arab
countries and Israel.
Shaath
said that Abdullah had told two senior U.S. officials it was
"essential" Arafat attend the sensitive meeting of the 22-member
pan-Arab organization set for March 27-28 in Beirut.
In
Egypt, More than 3,000 students from the Nile Delta University of Zagazig
demanded Sunday that Arab leaders "confront" Israel at their upcoming
summit in Beirut.
The
students called through loudspeakers on Arab leaders to "adopt firm
measures against Israel" at their meeting.
"Enough
refusals and denunciations, we want confrontation and acts," the students
chanted, saying the leaders should avoid "the defeatist decisions taken at
previous summits."
"Sharon,
debauched person, by your bullets a thousand martyrs have been mowed down",
shouted the students, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the
17-month Palestinian uprising against the Jewish state.
A
large force of police was deployed outside the university campus, where the
rally was staged, but the rally was peaceful, police said.
Most
public demonstrations are banned in Egypt, but rallies that stay inside of
universities are generally tolerated.
Several
demonstrations took place in October inside Cairo's universities against the
U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan.
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