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Arab Summit Makes Progress in Healing Inter-Arab Rifts
Arab leaders have made progress in trying to resolve inter-Arab differences, including the Iraq-Kuwait relations, before they closed the sessions on the first day of the two-day summit, opened in Jordan's capital on Tuesday.
Iraq has agreed in principle to Kuwaiti demands to hold talks after this summit on the issues related to Kuwaiti prisoners of war (POWs) and properties which Kuwait says were stolen during the Iraqi occupation from August 1990 to February 1991, sources close to the Kuwait delegation said.
Kuwait says that Iraq is still holding about 600 Kuwaiti POWs and nationals of third countries and vows not to reach reconciliation with Iraq before the issue is resolved.
Baghdad has denied the charges, saying that it has already released all Kuwaiti POWs.
In another move aimed at restoring and boosting Arab solidarity, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the sidelines of the two-day summit to discuss ways of improving the bilateral relations.
This was the first formal meeting between the leaders of the two sides, whose relations soured after the Palestinians signed the Oslo peace accords in 1993.
During their 45-minute meeting, Arafat and Assad held "frank" discussions and "differences among the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon over the Mideast peace process have been narrowed," Palestinian Minister of Local Government Saeb Erekat said.
"The three sides are now in a better position to face up to the challenges after holding the contacts and consultations," Erekat said.
In his speech to the summit, Assad expressed willingness to reconcile with the Palestinians after years of cold relationship, pledging cooperation with them in dealing with Israel in the peace process.
"We offer our hands to our Palestinian brothers and tell them we stand beside them in the service of the Palestinian causes," Assad said.
Fifteen heads of state or government from the 22-member Arab League attended the summit, with the seven other states being represented by senior officials.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, chairman of the last Arab summit held in Cairo in October, made a keynote speech. He called for concerted Arab efforts to support the Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israeli aggressions, provocations and violations of the Palestinian rights.
He also called for a more active role of the Arab League, Arab reconciliation and closer inter-Arab economic cooperation. He urged Arab countries to respect each other's sovereignty and solve their disputes peacefully and quickly.
In their speeches to the summit, Jordanian King Abdullah II and Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb called for continued support to the Palestinians in their struggles for an independent state with Jerusalem as the capital.
The two Jordanian leaders appealed for Arab efforts to seek lifting of United Nations sanctions against Iraq, saying that the Iraqis have suffered hardships "for far too long and it is time to end the sufferings by lifting the embargo on Iraq."
The U.N. Security Council imposed the trade embargo on Iraq after its invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The sanctions will not be lifted until it is certified that Iraq has destroyed all weapons of mass destruction under the relevant U.N. resolutions.
In his speech, Arafat voiced hope that ways could be found to support the Palestinian people according to the resolutions reached at the Cairo emergency summit, during which Arab leaders voiced support for the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation and pledged 1 billion U.S. dollars in aid to the Palestinian people.
Arafat warned that Israel's settlement expansion policy would pose danger to peace and stability in the region.
Assad, the Syrian president, said that Syria is committed to peace. He called for a "comprehensive and complete" Israeli withdrawal from Syria's Golan Heights the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, and from all other occupied Arab lands in order to realize a just and lasting peace in the region.
In a message delivered to the summit by his deputy, Izzat Ibrahim, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said that faith and Arabism are the basis of the Arab nation.
Saddam called on the Arab countries to exert joint efforts to restore unity and resolving differences in the Arab world. " Cohesion (is needed) among Arab brothers to deal with problems facing them," he said.
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