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Arab
Summit To Discuss Peace-plan, Thousands Demonstrate
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| Demonstrators,
carrying Palestinian and Islamic flags, shout anti-American
and anti-Israeli slogans during a demonstration in Lebanon.. |
BEIRUT,
March 23 (News Agencies) - A much-discussed Saudi initiative for
Middle East peace offers Israel "normal peaceful
relations" in exchange for a withdrawal from Arab territories,
according to a draft of the never-detailed plan published Saturday
by a Lebanese newspaper.
As-Safir
said the initiative, entitled "Palestinian file," will be
presented as an "independent resolution" to be adopted at
the two-day Arab summit beginning here on Wednesday, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Saudi
Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz was quoted by the New York
Times last month as suggesting Israel give back all Arab territory
captured in the 1967 Middle East War in exchange for normal ties
with its Arab neighbors.
According
to the paper, the Saudi initiative calls for:
-
An
Israeli pullout from Arab territories occupied in 1967,
including Syria's Golan Heights and what Lebanese territory
remains occupied;
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Establishment
of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital;
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Finding
a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees in line
with Resolution 194 (adopted in 1949 by the United Nations
General Assembly)
-
Establishment
of normal peaceful relations with Israel;
-
Encouraging
the Israeli public to seize the Arab peace offer;
-
Greeting
favorably U.N. Security Council Resolution 1397, which envisions
Israeli and Palestinian states living peaceably side by side.
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Entrusting
the presidency of the Arab summit, the Arab League Secretary General and the follow-up committee (formed by several Arab
countries after every annual Arab summit) to pursue the peace
initiative.
As-Safir
noted that the Saudi initiative says nothing about "right to
resistance" or "backing of the intifada," or
Palestinian uprising, against Israeli occupation.
The
paper said Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan had previously decided not
to disclose terms of the Saudi initiative in order to benefit from a
"diplomacy of constructive vagueness, in order to leave room
for change."
An
Arab minister said in Cairo on Thursday that the Saudi offer
"has been finalized during consultations made by Saudi Arabia
in the last few days with various concerned parties.
"The
differences in the formulation concerning relations with Israel and
the issue of the Palestinian refugees have been settled," said
the minister under condition of anonymity.
Arriving
in Beirut Friday, the Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said
the Saudi initiative had "strong chances of being adopted
unanimously."
Mussa
also said that Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat might still attend
the Arab summit after being trapped by Israeli troops in the West
Bank city of Ramallah for nearly four months.
U.S.
envoy Anthony Zinni's mediation between Israel and the Palestinians
raised some hope a truce could be forged, ending the 18-month
intifada and clearing the way for Israel to permit Arafat to travel
to Beirut.
"There
is still a possibility that President Arafat will attend the summit,
but there are also obstacles," Mussa told journalists on his
arrival here from Cairo.
"Arafat
is besieged by the forces of Israeli occupation, who will permit him
to leave the occupied territories but who may stop him from
returning."
In
other matters relating to the summit, Arab economy ministers will
open the Arab League Economic and Social Council.
Lebanese
Economy Minister Bassel Fleihan and Arab League Secretary General
Amr Mussa are expected to deliver speeches at the council's opening
session and hold a press conference.
A
Lebanese economic ministry official told AFP that the council is due
to review the relatively new pan-Arab free trade zone and also ways
to boost exchanges in the sectors of transportation, electricity,
tourism, labor and medicinal drugs.
Fourteen
Arab states - Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia,
Libya, Iraq and the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council -
have so far approved the free trade agreement decided at the Arab
summit in Cairo in 1996.
The
14 states started to abolish customs tariffs in 1998 and are
expected to have removed them completely by 2005.
Lebanon
plans to present a document to the council which calls for "a
special treatment for less developed Arab countries, mainly through
joining the free trade agreement," the ministry official said.
The
Lebanese document also calls for establishing a joint Arab office
for medical drugs and for facilitating exchanges in the services,
trade and transportation, he said.
Beirut,
which became notorious for shelling, hostage-takings and car
bombings during the 1975-1990 civil war, is determined to make every
effort to guarantee security at the event.
Meanwhile,
thousands of people in the Middle East demonstrated against Israel
and the United States and in favour of the Palestinian uprising on
Friday ahead of the Arab summit.
The
largest rally was staged late Friday in Beirut as about 10,000
people from across the political spectrum cast aside their rivalries
and marched through the streets to the downtown Martyrs Square to
show their solidarity with the Palestinians.
It
was the biggest such demonstration in the Lebanese capital since the
Palestinian uprising, or intifada, against Israeli occupation
started 18 months ago.
Showing
the depth of their support, members of the Resistance Movement
Hezbollah marched side by side with rank-and-file leftists from the
Communist and Baath parties, all in the name of the intifada.
At
the front of the crowd were prominent Muslim politicians, including
former prime ministers Salim Hoss and Omar Karam, who have backed
the heavy Syrian presence in Lebanon.
Beside
them were Christian leaders like MP Nassif Lahoud who have voiced
strong opposition to Syria's dominant role in Lebanon's politics.
Demonstrators
waved posters of Arafat and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, both of
whom are certain to be topics of discussion at the summit.
"Arab
leaders who are going to meet in Beirut must take real measures to
rise to the challenges facing the Arab world," Hoss said. The
rally dispersed calmly after about two hours.
Earlier
in Lebanon, Palestinian refugees and Lebanese urged Arab states to
stand firm in their support for the intifada. In the southern port
city of Sidon 3,000 Lebanese and Palestinian Islamic leaders rallied
under tight security, calling for an Islamic Palestinian state from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
The
leader in Lebanon of the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas,
Ossama Hamdan, warned Arab leaders: "We do not want normal
relations. The victory will not be achieved but with the intifada
that you must support."
There
were also rallies in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli, burning
an an Israeli and an American flag and denouncing the Saudi
initiative.
In
Egypt, about 3,000 people gathered in the Al-Azhar mosque compound
in the center of Cairo before being peacefully dispersed by police,
witnesses told AFP.
The
protestors called for "death" for Israel and chanted
"Down with the United States.".
Anti-Israel
protests have taken place in Egypt, mostly on university campuses,
on an almost daily basis for nearly two weeks, following massive
Israeli raids into the Palestinian territories.
In
Jordan hundreds rallied outside a mosque in the northern city of
Irbid chanting slogans of support for the Palestinian uprising, the
national news agency Petra reported.
The
protest was organized by Jordan's opposition Muslim Brotherhood, the
agency said. The speakers also condemned U.S. policies towards
Islam, the Palestinian people and Iraq, the agency added.
Jordan
banned protests in the month after the outbreak of the uprising in
September 2000 but has tolerated some of them and authorised others
in the past few weeks amid a rise in Israeli military escalation.
In
Yemen, thousands rallied in Sanaa in support of Iraq and the
intifada, burning an effigy of Sharon.
Yemenis
chanted slogans against normalisation with Israel, an apparent jibe
at the Saudi plan.
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