Arabic Paper Reports Main Points on Arab Summit Agenda

Text of report by London-based newspaper Al-Hayat website on 25 March

[Report by Muhammad Salah from Cairo: "The Lebanese crisis, the nuclear issue and Iraq on the [summit] agenda, in addition to social and environmental issues. Riyadh summit to discuss 18 political clauses. The Arab peace initiative at the centre of the debates”]

The proceedings of the 19th Arab summit will start next Wednesday [28 March 07] under the chairmanship of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdallah Bin-abd-al-Aziz. The Arab kings, presidents and princes will attend the summit, in addition to the secretary-general of the Arab League, the secretaries-general of the United Nations and the Organization of the Islamic Conference [OIC], and [representatives of] both the presidencies of the European Union and the African Union. The summit will discuss 18 political clauses, in addition to draft resolutions submitted by the ministerial social and economic council. The summit will also discuss the financial situation of the general secretariat of the Arab League.

The events of the past two months have brought the Arab-Israeli conflict to the forefront of the [said] clauses, particularly with regard to the Arab peace initiative which Israel wants to amend while the Arabs insist on maintaining all its articles intact as adopted by the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut.

The agenda includes a report by the chairman of the previous [Arab] summit, Sudanese President Umar Hasan al-Bashir, about the activities of the Khartoum summit follow-up committee, and Al- Bashir’s efforts to end the dispute between “Hamas” and “Fatah” through the auspices of his special envoy Dr. Mustafa Uthman Isma’il, and his mediation efforts in Lebanon where he held meetings with leaders from the government and the opposition. The report also includes the messages Al-Bashir had sent to the Arab kings and presidents concerning the situation in Iraq, and the emergence of civil war signs in this country. Al-Bashir’s calls upon the countries that have not paid their financial contributions to the Arab League budget to speed up their payment in implementation of the summit resolutions. These financial commitments include pledges to Arab funds for Somalia, Sudan, Comoros and the Palestinian [National] Authority.

The summit will also discuss the report of the Arab League secretary-general, Amr Musa, on joint Arab action, the challenges on the way and the achievements. It will also include Musa’s ongoing efforts to solve the Lebanese crisis, and the initiatives he took with regard to the Palestinian crisis and the situation in Iraq.

The summit will also discuss the political developments of the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as the reactivation of the Arab peace initiative. It will draw attention to the danger of Israel’s persistence in ignoring the Arab and international peace efforts, its defiance of the international legitimacy resolutions, and its unilateral decisions. It will also follow up the development of the situation in Jerusalem and will examine the Israeli measures and excavations round the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The summit will call upon Israel to stop these actions immediately, and to meet its obligations according to international law and the Geneva Conventions by preserving the Islamic and Christian sanctities. The summit will also call upon the UNESCO to shoulder its responsibility to this effect. It will also discuss Israeli plans aimed at building a museum on a piece of land confiscated from a historic Islamic cemetery, and will appeal to the UNESCO to stop this violation.

The Arab kings and presidents will also discuss settlement issues, the separation wall, the uprising, and the Palestinian refugees. The summit will oppose any new Israeli displacement process of Palestinians as a result of the racial wall of separation. It will issue warnings against the completion of the building of the separation wall, which is called “the Jerusalem cordon [ghilaf al-Quds]“. It will also discuss the uprising.

The summit will also discuss Israel’s hampering of the delivery of UNRWA assistance. It will call upon Israel to commit to the standards’ agreement signed with the Palestinian side in November 2005 to guarantee the freedom of movement and goods on all the occupied Palestinian territories and between them and their Arab surroundings. The summit will also discuss the [Palestinian] Authority budget and an additional assistance of the value of 300 million dollars to face up to the methodical Judaization campaign which East Jerusalem is undergoing.

The summit will also discuss the provision of political and economic support to the Lebanese government for the preservation of Lebanon’s national unity, security, stability and sovereignty over all its territories. It will also discuss the patriotic role played by the Lebanese army in the south and all the other regions, and the support of the army’s mission as decided by the Lebanese Council of Ministers to spread the state sovereignty over all its territories. The summit will also stress the importance of a lasting and firm cease-fire, and it will condemn Israeli violations of Security Council Resolution 1701.

It will also discuss the situation in Iraq and will put forth an Arab vision of the political and security solution in Iraq, the respect of its unity, sovereignty and Arab identity, rejecting calls for division, and non-interference in its internal affairs. In this respect, the summit will also stress that the government is a national government of all the Iraqis, and will endeavour to expand the political process, combat sectarian trends and call for dissolving the militias. The summit will also discuss ways of implementing the Khartoum summit resolution in connection with the reopening of the Arab diplomatic missions in Baghdad.

The summit will also discuss the occupation of Arab Golan, giving support to Syria to recover it fully, back to the 4th June 1967 borders, and building over what has been achieved since the convening of the peace conference in 1991.

The Arab leaders will also discuss turning the Middle East area into an area free of weapons of mass destruction, foremost among which the nuclear weapons, and giving support to the Somali government and the Federal [Islamic] Republic of Comoros.

The summit will also discuss Iran’s occupation of the United Arab Emirates’ islands in the Arab Gulf and the dialogue of civilizations. It will also resume the discussion of the ideas proposed by Colonel Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi at the 2001 Amman summit, the draft statute of the Arab justice court, and the promotion of the peaceful uses of the nuclear energy by the Arab League member countries.

According to Arab sources, it is likely that the Arab peace initiative will be the focus of attention of the summit in view of the ongoing debate about it and Israel’s request for amending some of its clauses (about refugees and borders). This [amendment] is being rejected by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Arab League. The Khartoum 2006 summit had insisted on the adoption of the Arab initiative by the Arabs as a framework for resolving the Arab- Israeli conflict. The summit resolution stipulated the central nature of the initiative in any future solution.

The initiative stressed that the peace process is a comprehensive one and cannot be divided, and that a just and comprehensive peace in the region can only be achieved following the full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab and Palestinian territories, including occupied Syrian-Arab Golan, back to the 4th June 1967 lines. The initiative also called for the withdrawal from the occupied territories in south Lebanon, and to reach a just solution for the Palestinian refugees’ problem following an agreement based on the UN General Assembly Resolution No 194, as well as rejecting all forms of settlement. The initiative urges Israel to accept a sovereign independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Then, the Arab countries will consider the Arab-Israeli conflict finished and will establish normal relations with Israel within the framework of a comprehensive peace.

Peaceful use of nuclear energy

The Arab leaders will discuss at the Riyadh summit a draft Arab resolution calling for an Arab strategy to acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. They will entrust the Arab Commission for Nuclear Energy with speeding up the initiation of steps related to acquiring nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes up until the year 2020.

The draft resolution urges the Arab countries – which have not joined in yet -to become members of the Arab Commission for Nuclear Energy and the International Atomic Energy Agency. It will also ask the [Arab League] secretary-general to follow up this issue and present a report about it.

Economy

The economic file to be presented to the summit will include three main projects:

The first one is about the creation of an Arab council for fisheries’ wealth following a Yemeni proposal adopted by the Arab ministers responsible for fisheries wealth [who met] in Sanaa in November 2006. The Arab League general secretariat is expected to draft a statute for this council.

The second project consists in re-establishing the executive bureaus for the competent ministerial councils, in addition to establishing the higher Arab committee for Arab linguistic treasures in the economic field.

As for the third project, it is concerned with the creation of an Arab environment facility. This is a mechanism for financing environmental projects through raising funds to finance them in Arab countries.

A Middle East free of nuclear weapons

The summit agenda includes a clause aimed at reaching a unified Arab stance to make practical steps towards freeing the Middle East region of nuclear weapons, and finding the appropriate alternatives within which one can proceed in case the international community was not able to take the appropriate measures to implement the Arab initiative to rid the region of these weapons, and in case an implementation procedure was not adopted for this purpose.

The summit will also discuss the Arab vision about how to deal with the situation in case Israel broke the policy of ambiguity it has been following, and announced that it is a nuclear state. A report will be submitted to the next session of the Arab League council including specific proposals.

The draft resolution includes the council’s worry and concern about the negative changes witnessed by the international arena in the field of controlling weapons and disarmament, with particular attention to non-proliferation and halting the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. The draft resolution also criticizes the lack of response in a practical way to the Arab initiative aimed to make the Middle East region free of weapons of mass destruction despite the issuance of UN resolutions to this effect.

There is another project about “the size and dangers posed by the Israeli space and satellite activity on Arab national security”. The Arab League Council has entrusted “the committee following up the Israeli nuclear activity which violates the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty” with keeping an eye on this activity and assessing its dangers.

The draft resolution stressed the need to pay attention to the Israeli space and satellite activities, and called upon the member states to provide the committee with any information or papers [written] about this issue.

The dialogue of civilizations and regional groupings

The Riyadh summit agenda includes a clause in connection with the dialogue of civilizations and another one about Arab relations with regional and international groupings, as well as Arab-African and Arab-European cooperation, in addition to cooperation with China and the two Americas.

The foreign ministers adopted a draft resolution on “supporting the dialogue of civilizations” confirming the Arab position calling for the need to adopt a culture of dialogue and alliance between civilizations and religions to entrench international peace and security as well as the values of forgiveness between peoples and cultures.

The draft resolution gave support to the proposal of the Arab League secretary-general, Amr Musa, who appealed to the UNESCO to call upon the UN Security Council to discuss the relations between cultures and their impact on international peace and security.

The draft resolution calls upon Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) to draw a definition of the Arab culture and its input to mankind, and to intensify its activities in this field. The draft resolution also entrusts the Arab League general secretariat to continue coordination with the Organization of the Islamic Conference to this effect.

The ministerial council adopted a draft resolution to activate the Arab presence in Africa, to strengthen and promote the African stances supporting Arab causes. The draft resolution urges civil society organizations and business institutions in Arab countries to increase their presence in Africa and to expand their ties with their [African] counterparts, particularly youth organizations, scientific circles, commercial chambers’ unions as well as interest in parliamentary ties.

The draft resolution calls upon the Arab League general secretariat to prepare an annual report on the activities of Arab ambassadors in African capitals.

The draft resolution calls for pondering the possibility of creating an important financial award to be given to the best production by African or Arab personalities or institutions regarding the subject of civilization, cultural and humanitarian interaction with Africa. The Arab commercial chambers and the Arab business bodies may contribute to this award.

The Arab League Council also discussed a draft resolution concerning “the march of Arab-African cooperation”, and stressed the importance of making further efforts to remove obstacles.

In this context, the draft resolution calls upon to the Arab League secretary-general to continue his contacts to reach a true cooperation phase and achieve common benefits based on the entangled [Arab-African] interests.

There is another draft resolution regarding “Arab-European dialogue” which calls upon the secretary-general of the Arab League to continue his efforts and contacts with the presidency of the European Union and European Commission in order to promote Arab- European ties including the joint Arab-European dialogue according to the requirements of the higher Arab interests. It also calls for intensifying joint efforts to support the initiative of some European countries to activate the relations of the EU member states with the Arab world.

Another draft resolution about “the European-Mediterranean partnership” was also discussed. Egypt’s efforts have been praised, in view of the role it played in its capacity as the Barcelona talks’ coordinator. The efforts of the general secretariat were also praised for the role it played in the success of the proceedings of the 8th ministerial council for Euro-Mediterranean partnership held in Finland on 27 and 28 November 2006.

The ministerial council discussed a draft resolution regarding “the Arab-Chinese ties” which calls upon the general secretariat of the Arab League to follow up coordination with the Chinese side in order to convene a meeting between the Arab-Chinese cooperation forum on the premises of the Arab League general secretariat in 2007, in preparation for the convening of the third session of the ministerial council of the forum in 2008 in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The draft resolution calls upon the general secretariat to continue its coordination with the relevant quarters on both the Arab and Chinese sides to convene the second session of the businessmen conference belonging to the [Arab-Chinese cooperation] forum in the Jordanian capital, Amman, between 18 and 19 June 2007.

The draft resolution expresses the council’s welcome to convening the dialogue forum between the Arab and Chinese civilizations. It entrusts the general secretariat with coordinating with the competent Arab and Chinese sides to prepare for convening this forum in 2007.

The council also discussed a draft resolution concerning “setting up an Arab-Turkish forum”.

The summit will also discuss a draft resolution concerning “the follow up of the results of the summit between the Arab countries and the South American states.” It will call upon the Arab League general secretariat to coordinate with the South American states to prepare for joint ministerial meetings agreed upon at the third meeting of the Arab and South American foreign ministries’ senior officials held at the headquarters of the Arab League general secretariat between 30 and 31 January 2007.

Two projects for education development and health promotion

The general secretariat of the Arab League prepared two projects only in “the social sector” to be submitted to the Riyadh summit in order to be able to focus on specific issues and complete their study.

The first project is a document devoted to developing education and scientific research in the Arab world. This was prepared by the Arab League general secretariat in cooperation with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) in a document entitled: “The general secretariat’s vision for developing education and scientific research”. This document broached the area of flaws and shortcomings. It suggested solutions, cost and the implementation phases according to needs and priorities. The document points to the importance of developing education and stresses “that our Arab societies absolutely need to review their educational networks and introduce reforms in them.” The second project aims to improve the quality of health services, and the document called (quality standards in health institutions) which has been applied in five hospitals in Arab countries and achieved positive results.

The technical committee in charge of setting up basic quality standards in Arab health institutions suggested in its latest meeting in July to start experimentation in the health institutions in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and all the countries willing to take part.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.