March 25, 2005

FINAL COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE ARAB SUMMIT IN ALGIERS. SUPPORT OF SYRIA IN ITS ENDEAVORS TO RESTORE THE GOLAN HEIGHTS AND LEBANON'S SOVEREIGN RIGHTS TO HAVE ITS OWN POLITICAL OPTIONS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF CONSTITUTIONAL RULES AND NORMS. ARAB LEADERS UNDERLINE THEIR RESPECT FOR IRAQ'S UNITY AND SOVEREIGNTY AND THE NECESSITY OF NON-INTERFERENCE IN IRAQ'S INTERNAL AFFAIRS. A CALL FOR AN INTERNATIONAL RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE ARAB PEACE INITIATIVE AS A FRAMEWORK FOR A PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT TO THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT. PRINCE SAUD AL-FAISAL EXPRESSES SAUDI ARABIA'S SATISFACTION WITH THE RESULTS OF THE SUMMIT AND ITS RESOLUTIONS. The 17th Arab summit conference wrapped up its meetings in Algiers under Algerian President Abdelaziz Boutaflika. The summit's final communiqué asserted the Arabs' commitment to the Arab peace initiative for settling the Palestinian question through setting up the state of Palestine with Al Quds as its capital. The Arab leaders at the closing session of their two-day summit issued the final communiqué of the summit, in which they considered the initiative of an Arab plan for achieving a just and durable peace in the region. According to the final communiqué, the Arabs are rejecting all stances and practices that run counter to the peace initiative and international legitimacy rules. The Arab leaders, in their final communiqué, also asserted that the peace process should be dealt with as an inseparable whole based on international legitimacy and the land-for-peace principle. The Arab leaders also underscored that land seizure was not permissible. They renewed their support of Syria in its endeavors to restore the Golan Heights. They also denounced Israel's continued occupation of Lebanese territories. The Arab leaders, in their final communiqué, endorsed adding a new clause to the Arab League Charter calling for setting up an interim Arab parliament and setting up a mechanism for following up the implementation of resolutions. They also approved introducing amendments to paragraph 2 of article 6 of the Charter on a vote in case of a member state coming under attack. The Arab leaders in the final statement endorsed a new text of article 7 of the AL charter amending the mechanism of decision-making. The leaders also entrusted the Arab League Secretary General with starting consultations with member states on forming adhoc committees debating two blueprints on setting up an Arab court of justice and an Arab security council ahead of referring the two drafts to the Arab summit in its coming session. The Arab leaders reiterated that the Arab peace initiative was an Arab plan for achieving a just and durable peace in the region. The statement underlined that no party was entitled to introduce amendments to the peace process's terms of reference with a view to dodging agreed commitments. The Arab leaders urged the Arab peace initiative committee, at the ministerial level and the AL chief, to seek to get the UN Security Council or General Assembly issue a resolution adopting the Arab peace initiative as a framework for a peaceful settlement to the Middle East conflict. Peace initiative The Arab leaders in their final communiqué underlined the importance of putting into effect the Arab peace initiative that called for Israel's withdrawal from Arab lands, including the Syrian Golan Height, to the borders of June 4, 1967, facilitating the establishment of an independent state of Palestine in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip with East Jerusalem as its capital and reaching a just settlement to the issue of refugees. If Israel complied with the Arab peace initiative, Arab countries, according to the final statement, would consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and start normal relations with Tel Aviv. They underlined that any unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories should be part of the Roadmap peace plan and in line with the Sharm El Sheikh understandings. It should also be an initial step towards a full Israeli pull-out to the borders of 1967. The Arab leaders also denounced the building of the Israeli separation wall and underlined the paramount importance of a legal opinion issued by the International Court of Justice that the wall building was illegal. The final communiqué of the Arab leaders supported Lebanon's sovereign rights to have its own political options within the framework of constitutional rules and norms. They also expressed support of free decisions by Lebanon on enhancing relations with other Arab countries, taking into consideration the historical relations between Lebanon and Syria. The Arab leaders renewed their support for Lebanon's efforts to liberate its lands and its demands for releasing its nationals in Israeli jails. The leaders urged the United Nations Security Council to stop the Israeli violations against Lebanon. They also called for implementing United Nations General Assembly resolution 194 of 1948 on the return of Palestinian refugees and expressed rejection of settling Palestinian refugees in the host countries. The Arab leaders also underlined their respect for Iraq's unity and sovereignty and the necessity of non-interference in Iraq's internal affairs. The statement underscored the necessity of enhancing the Arab League's role in Iraq including restoring Iraq's diplomatic relations with Arab countries to their natural level. The Arab leaders denounced all forms of terrorism and violence in Iraq. The Arab leaders in their final communiqué welcomed a step taken by creditor countries on slimming down Iraqi debts by 80 percent. They urged Arab creditor countries to take a similar move, either fully forgiving or at least exempting Iraq of parts of its debt as part of efforts aimed at supporting the Iraqi national economy. The Arab leaders renewed their support of the sovereignty of the United Arab Emirates over the three disputed islands of Greater and Lesser Tunbs and Abu Moussa. They urged Iran to end its occupation of the three islands and stop imposing- a fait accompli policy. The Arab leaders expressed belief that Iran would reconsider its stance rejecting a peaceful solution to the bone of contention with the UAE. The leaders also voiced their rejection of the so-called Syria Accountability Act, deeming it a violation of international law and the relevant United Nations resolutions along with the Arab League Charter. They expressed solidarity with Syria in its disagreement with the US and urged Washington to enter into dialogue with Damascus in good faith in a bid to end differences. The Arab leaders also called upon the US to reconsider that Act against Syria which constituted a flagrant bias towards Israel and posed a threat to Arab national interest. The final communiqué of the Arab summit underlined the Arab leaders' support of Sudan in its efforts to maintain peace and stability over Sudanese lands. They welcomed hammering out an agreement between the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the Kenyan capital Nairobi in January this year. They expressed deep concern regarding the developments in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur and the humanitarian crisis there. They announced, their decision to support efforts made by the African Union to help settle the Darfur crisis. They urged the parties concerned to resume peace negotiations on the situation in Darfur without preconditions. Somali reconciliation The Arab leaders welcomed the positive results reached at the Somali factions' national reconciliation conference, which was held in Nairobi. They also welcomed other positive developments, including the formation of an interim Somali parliament and government along with naming a President. They urged the Somali people and factions to work together for maintaining their country's peace and stability. The Arab leaders also underlined the necessity of introducing reforms into the United Nations by enhancing the role of the General Assembly and broadening the membership of the Security Council. The Arab Leaders stressed the importance of activating the Euro-Arab dialogue to the benefit of joint interests. They also underscored the importance of the Arab-Latin America summit. They urged a vital Arab participation at the summit with a view to promoting relations between both sides. They expressed worries over the international community's failure to respond to Arab initiative calling for rendering the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction. They said that Israel, being the sole country in the region having nuclear weapons and rejecting to subject its nuclear facilities to international inspection, was posing a threat to the region. The Arab leaders renewed their demand for holding a United Nations conference on rendering the Middle East an area free of weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism The Arab Leaders renewed their denunciation of all forms of terrorism whatsoever its justifications. They pressed for addressing the root causes of terrorism. They also called for more international cooperation in fighting terrorism within the framework of law and respect for human rights. They further expressed their support of an Arab Customs Union. They also expressed their support of any Arab country seeking to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). They underlined their support for efforts in the service of development goals. In Algier United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Wednesday said the world countries are in need of a collective security system that can meet the security requirements of every country. In his speech at the Arab summit, Annan called for enhancing disarmament efforts and boosting capabilities of peace-keeping missions in the world. The United Nations Secretary General also underlined the need for a collective action to stand up to terrorism. He noted that people should understand that violent means would never bring solutions to their problems. Citing what is going on in the Palestinian lands as an example, Annan said he saw for himself the difficulties besetting the Palestinians in their daily lives and how the Israeli settlement activities were provoking them. Annan described the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri as a hard blow to everybody. He appealed to all parties concerned to work for salvaging the Lebanese national unity and security. Annan said that Syrian President Bashar AL-Assad was committed to implementing Security Council Resolution 1559. He expected that the Syrian troops would withdraw from Lebanon before the Lebanese legislative elections. He noted that a UN envoy will arrive to the region in the first week of April to resume dialogue with the parties concerned in the Middle East region. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan noted that the international organization is committed to supporting Iraq in the transitional period of its political process. As for the situation in Sudan, Annan expressed satisfaction with the peace agreement reached between the Khartoum government and the Sudan people's Liberation Movement (SPLM) in the Kenyan capital Nairobi earlier this year. However, he was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. He called for extending more humanitarian assistance to the inhabitants of Darfur. Annan pointed out that the international law denounces the use of force by any world nation. He praised the role played by Egypt and Jordan in bringing together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Sharm el-Sheikh and pushing forward the peace process. He asserted the importance of accelerating the peace drive and implementing the Roadmap. He called for Israel's pullback from the Syrian and Lebanese territories and welcomed Syrian President Bashar AL-Assad's decision to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon. He voiced hope that such a withdrawal would take place before the upcoming parliamentary elections. He pointed out that his envoy will continue with his mission in Lebanon and Syria to follow up the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution, reiterating the organization's continued support for security and stability in Iraq. The United Nations will continue to endorse the peace agreement in Sudan, he said, expressing hope that stability would prevail in Darfur. He called for putting to trial those who committed war crimes in the Western Sudanese region. He said efforts to end hotbeds in the Middle East should continue, pointing out to the Arab openness to tackling problems pertaining to democracy and encouragement of peace, development and progress. He expressed hope that the UN would work with the Arab countries to realize peace. Arab League delegates overcame initial hiccups and quickly got down to business after the start of the summit discussing peace with Israel while making it clear any road to peace must be a two-way street. "Israel still imagines that rights will be forgotten ... (and) that the Arabs will normalize relations with it without any equivalent worth mentioning. It cannot happen without something real in return," Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa told the summit. In his inaugural address, Algerian President Abdul Aziz Boutaflika, the conference chairman, said Arabs must show the world their peaceful intentions to mobilize international public opinion against Israel's intransigence. "We must make the international community, the conscience of the world and the Jewish people themselves bear witness to the strategic nature of the Arab option for peace," he said. The president urged Israel to withdraw from all Arab territories it occupied after the 1967 war one of the demands of the Arab peace plan for normalization of ties. He stressed the Palestinians' right to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. Moussa rejected accusations that Arabs would only produce terrorism and referred to Arab peace initiatives in the past years. His speech focused on global developments, including moves to change regimes by force. "The Arab initiative and the Middle East road map are important to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of setting up two states coexisting peacefully side by side," Boutaflika said. The summit called on the UN Security Council to adopt the Arab initiative, presented by Crown Prince Abdullah and endorsed in 2002 at the Arab League summit, as the basis for peace. Jordan had presented proposals to make the Arab initiative more appealing to Israel by not insisting on the right of return and establishing Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, but summit leaders have reportedly rejected them. Arab foreign ministers, in preparatory meetings, agreed to spell out the conditions in more detail, reducing the impact of the re-launch of the Arab plan. Algerian Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Belkhadem said the Algiers meeting would not be "the summit of normalization." Boutaflika emphasized the importance of political and social reform in Arab countries, saying they would boost the welfare and prosperity of Arab people. "I would like to point out here that we initiated this reform program some years ago on our own conviction and not because of any foreign pressure," Boutaflika said of Algeria. He emphasized Arabs' total opposition to terrorism, whatever be its source or location. "Islam rejects extremism, violence and terrorism," he said. In his address, Moussa referred to the launch of the Arab Free Trade Zone with the participation of 18 countries. He called for greater efforts to enhance inter-Arab trade. "The Arab Common Market is no longer a dream but a goal that can be realized," he said. The Arab League secretary-general said the summit would take up a number of vital issues. It is expected to endorse the Arab family strategy and mechanisms to counter catastrophes. The establishment of the Arab Parliament, Arab Court of Justice and Arab Security and Peace Council and setting up of a council to follow up implementation of resolutions will also be addressed during the two-day deliberations. Thirteen kings or presidents, from 22 Arab League members, took part in the opening ceremony at a beach complex west of the capital. Other countries sent high-level representatives. The agenda for the meeting also includes structural changes to give the Arab League more clout and to bring parliamentarians and non-governmental organizations into the system. Algerian Foreign minister Abdul Aziz Belkhadem and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa held a joint news conference following the end of the Arab summit in Algiers. During the conference, Belkhadem said reforms would continue through the coming Arab summit in Khartoum. For his part, Moussa said several proposals were forwarded on amendments to be introduced to the Arab League Charter. Stressing his keenness on continuing on the road of reforms, Moussa said several proposals were agreed upon during the Algiers summit and the previous summit in Tunis. As for Iran's occupation of UAE's islands, Moussa said the Arab stance is clear in calling for a peaceful solution for the issue through dialogue. Moussa, meantime, played down the absence of several Arab Heads of State and governments. On the proposals of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Moussa said that they will be taken into consideration and tackled in the Arab League. Belkhadem said that the summit's declaration called for ending the foreign "military presence" in Iraq. Asked about a rotation of the AL Secretary General's post, Belkhadem said the AL chief is elected in accordance with the League's Charter and by-laws, noting that Moussa's term expires next year when the Khartoum-hosted next Arab summit convenes. On Israeli practices against the Palestinian people, Moussa said Israel is adopting a "very strange" policy as it continues building settlements and the West Bank separation wall and at the same time its foreign minister boasts that ten Arab countries will establish relations with Israel "Israel doesn't deserve the peace overture initiated by the Arabs," Moussa added. "Every step taken by the Arabs should be reciprocated by Israel and if they (the Israelis) commit themselves to what has been agreed upon, then the road for peace will be open," Moussa told the press conference. Belkhadem, for his part, said that the Arab leaders tackled efforts to have two permanent seats in the UN Security Council for Africa on a four-year rotation basis. The Algerian foreign minister further denied that the summit had addressed the possibility of sending Arab troops to Somalia or any other country. But Moussa added that the summit agreed to immediately allocate $ 26 million to Somalia to help its reconstruction efforts. Moussa also described the summit as "successful", stressing that the Arab countries should try their best to cement their unity. The AL chief reiterated the importance of financial support to the League, stressing that the Arab financial contributions by member states were "obligatory" and not grants. Following the end of the Arab summit meeting, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister who led the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the summit, expressed his satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting. In a statement, Prince Saud also lauded the speech delivered at the meeting by Algeria's President Abdul Aziz Boutaflika in which he reminded that the Arab leaders have vowed at Tunis summit to activate a joint Arab will for preserving Arab vital interests. Prince Saud also praised the warm welcome and generous hospitality accorded to the delegates by the Algerian authorities and people. Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia described the "Covenant Document" endorsed by the Arab Summit which held its 16th session in Tunisia as important, noting that ratification of Arab countries of the document started coming to the Arab League. In a meeting with the Saudi media in Algiers, Prince Saud said that the activation of the document is part of Arab Security Council Document and means of voting in the League. Prince Saud described Algeria Summit as extraordinary since it will deal with the activation of the peace document, amendment to the Arab League's Charter and the pursuit of wrapping up the ratification of the Covenant Document. On the Arab Peace Initiative endorsed by Beirut Summit in 2002, he said that the League's ministerial council has unanimously agreed on the necessity for activating the initiative following the changes which have occurred at the international arena such as the new Palestinian stand, adding that the U.S. administration has also sent signals to earnestly deal with the Palestinian-Israeli file and the European countries have supported a new dialogue between the two sides and the revival of the Quartet Committee and the Road Map. He noted that there is a necessity of activating the initiative and the Summit will pursue that way. As regards the Arab Parliament endorsed by Arab foreign ministers and will be submitted to the Summit, Prince Saud said each Arab country will have four members in the Parliament which will have supervisory authorities. Replying to a question on the United Nations reform, he said the ministerial council has unanimously agreed on creating a seat for an Arab member in the U.N. Security Council and on the right of Arab countries to this seat if the council is expanded. They also agreed on a real reform through regaining the authorities of the General Assembly and limiting the use of veto in the Security Council, he stated. As for the Arab League's Administrative reform, Prince Saud pointed out that the ministerial council has agreed on the administrative formation of the League's General Secretariat.