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Kadhafi To Unveil White Book Containing Mideast Peace Plan
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Kadhafi will reveal mideast peace plan in national celebration |
TRIPOLI,
March 2 (News Agencies) - Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is expected to unveil
proposals for a Middle East peace settlement, as the country marks the 25th
anniversary Saturday of the creation of its popular socialist
"Jamahiriya".
Kadhafi
will render public, at a huge celebration in the coastal city of Syrte,
proposals for peace he initially made privately at an Arab summit in March 2001.
"The
Guide will brief the world tomorrow (Saturday) on his 'white book', which
contains the proposals he made to the Arab summit in Amman in March 2001,"
the official Libyan news agency JANA.
The
agency did not giver further details on the content of the peace initiative that
Kadhafi will make in Syrte, 450 kilometers (160 miles) east of Tripoli.
This
follows a peace initiative proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul
Aziz in February, in which he says that Arab states would normalize ties with
Israel in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab lands to
borders delineated in 1967.
During
a private meeting with Arab leaders gathered in Amman last year, Kadhafi
suggested that the 22-member Arab League could recognise Israel if Palestinian
refugees were granted the right to return.
Some
four million Palestinian refugees, who fled or lost their homes following the
creation of the state of Israel in 1948, are currently registered with the U.N.
Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), reported Agence France-Presse (AFP)
They
live in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip, and their return to their homeland is one of the thorniest issues facing
the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The
Libyan proposal was revealed by Arab diplomatic sources but never confirmed by
officials in Tripoli. After the March 2001 summit, the Arab League set up an
eight-member committee to examine Kadhafi's ideas.
On
March 2, 1977, Kadhafi proclaimed the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
or republic of the masses, which purported to give power directly to the people,
eight years after he overthrew the monarchy.
The
highest political authority is the General People's Congress, which functions as
a parliament and heads the people's committees. The General People's Committee
is the cabinet.
The
General People's Congress meets on March 2, a holiday in Libya, of each year to
examine the state of the nation's affairs.
This
year's session is expected to become a huge political and popular rally, which
will be attended by Arab and African delegations as well as representatives from
Latin American nations, notably Cuba.
"Festivities
will take place across Libyan towns," Hassuna al-Shaush, a senior foreign
ministry official, told AFP. Syrte, meanwhile, is decked in green, the colour of
the Libyan flag, Islam and also Kadhafi's favourite color, while posters have
been placed across the city bearing slogans in support of African unity,
inspired by the Libyan leader. Kadhafi will address the masses from the
Ouagadougou amphitheater in Syrte.
He
will be joined by his eldest son, Seiful-Islam, who has no official role in his
father's government, but is best known internationally for his work at the head
of the Kadhafi Foundation, a high-profile humanitarian group that has taken a
role in several recent international crises.
Seiful-Islam
recently returned home from a high-profile visit to France aimed at improving
ties between the two former enemies.
Libya,
an oil-producing country and a former Italian colony in North Africa, has been
headed by Colonel Moamer Kadhafi since he and his military co-conspirators
overthrew King Idriss on September 1, 1969. On March 2 it was declared a
Jamahiriya, or "state of the masses", with the ostensible aim of
giving power directly to the people.
Libya’s
official language is Arabic and 99 percent of Libyans are Sunni Moslems.
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