BEIRUT,
March 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab leaders have started
to arrive in Beirut Tuesday, March 26 for a crucial summit to discuss
a bid to make peace with Israel, but there was increasing doubt that
one of the key players, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, would be
among them.
The
conference, to be held Wednesday and Thursday, has a Saudi peace
initiative at the top of its agenda. The Saudi plan offers peace with
Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from all Arab land occupied
since the June 1967 Middle East war and a fair solution to the problem
of Palestinian refugees. Other issues to be discussed include the
situation between Iraq and Kuwait 11 years after the Gulf War.
The
leaders are expected to approve the Saudi initiative. But Lebanon is
digging its heels in on the question of the 360,000 Palestinian
refugees on its soil, saying they must return home as it can not
absorb them even if compensation is paid in line with a U.N.
resolution of 1948, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
The
initiative, which has already been discussed informally by foreign
ministers of the 22-member Arab League, is to be presented to the
summit by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
Meanwhile,
the question of Arafat's attendance at the summit was still hanging in
the air. There were mixed signals coming out of the Israel early
Tuesday on whether it will let Arafat leave the Palestinian
territories.
An
official of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet,
who asked not to be named said, "Up to now, conditions are not
right to allow Arafat to travel abroad”. Although the Israeli
government had said it would decide Tuesday, the official said no
cabinet meeting on the issue was scheduled.
But
cracks appeared in the government stand as Israeli Defense Minister
Binyamin Ben Eliezer told Israeli military radio that Arafat should be
free to go, and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said in Beijing no
decision had yet been taken, AFP reported.
Israel
is under pressure from the United States, which is interested in the
Saudi initiative, to allow Arafat to leave.
However,
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published
Tuesday, March 26, in the Lebanese daily newspaper, An-Nahar, he would
advise Arafat not to attend the summit even if the Israelis allow him
to. Mubarak told the Lebanese daily that there was a major risk of the
Israelis making it impossible for Arafat to return once he was out of
the Palestinian territories.
"If
I were in Arafat's place and the Israelis authorized me to leave, I
would not go because they would not allow me back," he said.
"They
will be able to use any incident at all to destroy what remains of
(official) buildings, and the Palestinian Authority would find itself
outside the Palestinian territories."
In case
of Arafat's non-appearance, summit officials have arranged for him to
address the conference by means of a satellite video link, which
Mubarak called a "good solution."
The
Egyptian leader expressed support for the Saudi initiative, but added,
"I have no confidence in Israel, and I don't believe it will
accept it."
According
to the BBC’s online news service, even if Israel agrees that Arafat
should travel, it remains to be resolved how he will reach Beirut,
given that Israel has destroyed the helicopters that were his primary
source of transport.
According
to official sources, a draft resolution states that the Arab summit
meeting in Beirut on March 27 and 28, 2002, reaffirms that a fair,
comprehensive and lasting peace is a strategic choice of all Arab
countries, which want to live in peace and security. This peace must
be based on total withdrawal from Arab territory occupied in 1967,
including the Syrian Golan and Lebanese territory, as far as the
borders of June 4, 1967.
Moreover,
acceptance of a just solution to the problem of refugees that will be
negotiated by the parties concerned based on U.N. General Assembly
Resolution 194.
Another
condition is the establishment of an independent and sovereign state
in the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967, in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with east Jerusalem as its capital.
In
return, the Arab countries pledge to end the state of hostilities with
Israel, establish normal relations of peace and total recognition with
Israel and cement these relations by a peace treaty.
Emad
Shaheen, Political Science Professor at the American University of
Cairo, told IslamOnline, “Of course it would make a big difference
if Arafat attends the summit, because he has been under siege for a
long time and attending the summit would give him legitimacy and
enhance his image”.
Shaheen
said that “if the summit manages to translate the public aspirations
to concrete and solid resolutions it would be great. Only vocal
support has been made in the past, but it would be a breakthrough if
the summit declares and reaffirms in its final resolution the support
for the intifada, in terms of providing money or weapons, which have
been a problem in the past.”
“Another
condition that would meet the aspirations of the public, would be to
state that resistance does not equal terrorism, and remove the names
of Palestinian national resistance movements such as Jihad, Hamas,
etc. from the U.S. terrorist list,” he added.
“However,
we must keep in mind that the summit will take into consideration the
international community and the U.S.,” Shaheen told IslamOnline.
On the
Arab street level, hundreds of thousands of Yemenis also took to the
streets of the capital Sanaa Tuesday in support of the 18-month-old
Palestinian uprising against Israel.
"Freedom
of Jerusalem is a must!" "No to capitulation!" and
"Let's resist in Iraq and Palestine!", chanted the
protestors in Yemen, estimated by the official SABA news agency to
number 1.5 million.
The
throng, led by General Popular Congress secretary general Abdul Karim
al-Iriyani, adviser to Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, waved
banners proclaiming "Support for the intifada", "No
peace with occupation, no security with terrorism."
Protestors
carried portraits of Palestinian resistance leaders, including
Palestinian Hamas leader Ahmad Yassin and Lebanese Hezbollah chief
Hassan Nasrallah. They also carried pictures of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat.
Addressing
the crowd, Iriyani called on the two-day Arab summit that opens in
Beirut Wednesday to "rise up to meet the challenges faced by
Arabs and support the Intifada," or uprising.
Before
dispersing, representatives of the demonstrators delivered a message
to the United Nations office in Sanaa demanding international
protection for the Palestinians.
Several
demonstrations have been organized in Yemen in the run-up to the Arab
summit in support of the Palestinians and Iraq, under threat of a U.S.
strike.
In
Egypt, thousands of students demonstrated against Israel at two
northern universities, just a day before the start of the Arab summit
in Beirut.
Some
8,000 students at Zaqaziq University in the Nile Delta shouted
"Arab rulers, say it loud, Jerusalem will remain Arab,"
"Liberation is by the gun, not by the Saudi initiative" and
other slogans, police said.
Another
5,000 students demonstrated at Menufiya University in the Delta town
of Shebin Al-Kom, police said.
Security
forces were deployed around the campus to prevent students from
entering the street, but there were no clashes, police said.
Anti-Israeli demonstrations have taken place regularly on Egyptian
campuses following massive Israeli military incursions into the
Palestinian territories earlier this month that have led to the
killing of tens of civilians daily.
