ARAB LEADERS ISSUE DECLARATION, EXPRESS SATISFACTIONCAIRO -- Arab heads of state issued a declaration today stating that they would soon make a number of important declarations on the Palestinian issue, UN sanctions on Iraq, America's "War on Terrorism" and human rights and democracy.
The much-anticipated declaration came at the end of a three-day summit meeting in Cairo convened by current Arab League chairman President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
"Today's declaration marks an important turning point for the Arab States," said Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mousa, who explained that "the Arab nations have made clear their firm and unyielding commitment to issuing declarations on the central issues in our region."
Earlier, some observers had been skeptical that the summit would succeed. Professor Shibley Shibley of Cairo University said "I was surprised that all the Arab leaders agreed to a declaration promising further declarations." Shibley added that Libya, one of the region's leading exporters of declarations had met resistance to its draft from Saudi Arabia, which is known to prefer silence on most issues of substance. Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi said that "the Libyan Arab People's Arab Socialist People's Arab Libyan Jamahariyyeh of Libya is running late for a fitting for a new Indian silk galabiyeh and some wonderful alligator shoes, and must run." Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal refused to comment.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Abderrahmane Benissa told reporters that a breakthrough had been reached when Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad had proposed that rather than make declarations on any particular issues, the 22-member body would strongly reaffirm its commitment to making declarations and would establish a series of working groups to study ways in which these declarations could be made without alluding to any specific actions or positions binding on the members.
President Assad, responding to a reporter's question about the latest Israeli attack on Syrian positions in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley said that "Syria knows how to respond, and we will do so in the time and manner of our choosing." Asked when that would be, President Assad said that his country had still not decided when and how to respond to several hundred other attacks dating back to at least 1978, and once it had done so, Syria could turn its attention to the latest attack.
Palestinian Leader Yasir Arafat meanwhile expressed satisfaction with the Arab position saying that only through words, rather than deeds, could his people "establish a Palestinian state with Holy Jerusalem as its capital." Arafat recalled that it was his own declaration of a Palestinian state on November 15, 1988 which had resulted only 13 years later in an American President using the word "Palestine" in the United Nations General Assembly. Arafat was apparently referring to a speech in which US President George Bush said that the United States wanted to see two states, "Israel and Palestine" living side by side.
Arab League Secretary General Mousa could not say exactly when the forthcoming declarations would be made, nor what their substance would be. He said he hoped to make a declaration on that in the near future.
Ali Al-Ali
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