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Arab
League Secretary General Amr Moussa, right, speaks at a press
conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud in
Beirut..
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BEIRUT,
May 18 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A special Arab League
committee held its first official meeting in Beirut Saturday on ways to
reactivate a Saudi-proposed initiative for peace with Israel approved by
the Arab summit in March, news agencies reported.
Lebanese
Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud opened the session at a Beirut luxury
hotel by declaring that the Arabs backed the peace initiative and
rejected any "modification" to the proposal, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Ahead
of the meeting, Faruq Qaddumi, who acts as the Palestinian Authority's
foreign minister, said the peace plan should be adopted by the UN
Security Council, the United States, EU and Russia to become an
"international initiative."
"The
initiative should be adopted by the concerned parties, namely the
Europeans, the Americans and Russia," Qaddumi, head of the
Palestine Liberation Organization’s [PLO] political department said.
"In
addition, this initiative should be [adopted] by the [UN] Security
Council in order to become an international and not just an Arab
initiative," Qaddumi told reporters at the presidential palace.
Qaddumi,
speaking after a meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, said
"the atmosphere is very positive, and we are acting for the
reactivation of the Arab initiative.
"There
will be meetings with the concerned parties, and by that we do not mean
Israel, but the parties who will help us in that direction, namely the
Europeans, the United Nations, Russia and the United States," he
said.
In
a statement, Lahoud said he had asked the committee to "draw up a
strategy of action and a work plan that would give the Arab initiative
top priority after Israel tried through its war on the Palestinians to
put the initiative on the side."
He
also called on the committee "to present the Arab peace initiative
as the sole choice, if the great powers, mainly the United States, are
determined to seek peace."
The
special committee is due to draft recommendations to be submitted to
Lahoud, as chairman of the Arab summit held in late March in Beirut.
The
Saudi proposal offered normal relations and security to Israel in return
for its complete pullout from all Arab territories captured in the 1967
Middle East War.
But
just a day after the Arabs adopted the peace initiative, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon invaded the West Bank to wipe out Palestinian
"terrorism," occupying Palestinian autonomous territories and
besieging Palestinian President Yasser Arafat at his Ramallah
headquarters.
The
move plunged the peace initiative into the deep freeze until April 25,
when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz handed President George
W. Bush an eight-point document to revive the peace process.
Saturday's
meeting was also attended by foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia,
Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Yemen, as well as Arab League
chief Amr Mussa.
During
the session, the committee will be informed about the recent visits to
the United States by Prince Abdullah, as well as by Jordan's King
Abdullah II and Moroccan King Mohammed VI.
The
meeting will also focus on the results of the three-way summit of the
leaders of Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia held at the Egyptian resort of
Sharm al-Sheikh on May 11.
The
special committee is also expected to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafiq Hariri.
The
foreign ministers have failed, however, during their meeting to agree
whether to take part in a Middle East peace conference, reported BBC’s
online news service.
Moussa,
said it would be difficult to take part in the conference as long as
Israeli "occupation, murder and sabotage" continued in the
Palestinian territories.
The
conference was proposed by the U.S., the United Nations, the European
Union and Russia early in May, nearly a month after an Arab summit
adopted a Saudi peace plan for the region.
