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“Uncle
Sam” Asked To Put Pressure On Israel
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Arab
League Secretary General Amr Mussa |
ROME,
March 19 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Arab League Secretary
General urged the United States to put pressure on Israel to accept
the Saudi peace plan for the Middle East, and renewed Arab rejection
of any attack against Iraq, in an interview published Tuesday in
Rome.
"I
believe that at the Arab summit in Beirut (March 27 to 28) there
will be a clear and unanimous proposal: either land or peace. It
will then be up to Israel to decide," Amr Mussa told the
Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Mussa,
speaking from Cairo, said he has reservations about the Israeli
reaction to the Saudi peace plan.
"It
will be up to Uncle Sam to convince (Israel)," he said,
referring to the United States.
"If
we can agree that the (current) system, particularly (the issue of)
security, has failed and that (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon
alone is not able to solve the problem, then we will be on the right
path," said Mussa, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"If
there is a Palestinian state, with eastern Jerusalem as the capital,
and if we seriously discuss the refugee problem, then everything
will be resolved."
The
Arab League Secretary General stressed it was vital Palestinian
President Yasser Arafat attend the talks.
In
the meantime, Mussa rejected any link between the Arab-Israeli
conflict and the continuation of U.S. military operations in the
international fight against terrorism.
"I
do not believe there is a link... We would never side with a
(western) coalition to attack an Arab country, including Iraq,"
Mussa said, stressing that the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, has
agreed to begin talks with the UN.
"I
do not believe that the problem is a result of the inspections...
One must not forget that Butler, the leader of the (UN) inspectors,
has not only angered the Iraqis but all of us."
Baghdad
refused to submit to arms inspections, accusing weapons monitors of
espionage. The monitors left Iraq ahead of U.S.-British air strikes
in December 1998. Washington has been rallying support for a
military adventure to topple Saddam’s regime, but all Arab
countries publicly refused to grant the U.S. such support.
However,
Iraq may allow UN arms inspectors back into the country if the
United Nations draws up a list of sites and a timetable for
inspections.
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