21 - 27 June 2001
Issue No.539
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 21 - 27 June 2001 Issue No.539 |
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A regular meeting
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Amman strongly backed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's call for UN observers to protect Palestinians. But their hopes may be futile, reports Soha Abdelaty
Nine Arab foreign ministers met in Jordan on Monday and emphasised that international observers are needed to secure the "fragile" cease- fire in the occupied territories that US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet worked out last week.
The Monday meeting was a result of the Arab summit that took place last October in Cairo. At the Cairo summit, Arab leaders mandated a committee to follow up their decisions regarding the deteriorating situation in the occupied territories. Arab leaders renewed the mandate of the ministerial committee during the latest Arab summit, held in Amman in March.
"Maintaining the cease-fire...needs...an international observer force on the ground...to monitor the truce," stated the committee's final communiqué.
This request was echoed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Yasser Arafat, who said, "It is now necessary to send, without delay, international observers to consolidate the cease- fire."
This seems unlikely, however, given UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's comments during a visit to the region last week. While in Cairo, Annan dismissed suggestions that the Security Council review the issue of international observers, on account of Israel's rejection of the proposal and US support for Israel's position.
The ministers' communiqué also called for Israeli troops to withdraw immediately from all occupied lands, for all settlement activities to end and for the Israeli blockade on Palestinian lands to cease. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa emphasised to the meeting that the "fragile cease-fire will not take root" unless all these actions happen. The Arab ministers also renewed an Arab commitment to pay the PA 45 million dollars a month for the coming half year. The ministers urged Arab countries that have defaulted on this commitment to pay their dues.
Meanwhile, regarding the direction of negotiations with Israel, Arafat said that "We are dealing with the Mitchell report, the understandings of Sharm El-Sheikh and the Egyptian- Jordanian Initiative and the international resolutions as one package. We will work on implementing them simultaneously and not consecutively."
According to Ambassador Hani Riad, Egypt's permanent representative at the Arab League, the ministers issued only a short communiqué outlining the issues discussed by the committee, because of "the regular nature of the follow-up committee's work." Besides the statement on the Intifada, the ministers also announced their strong backing of Syria and Lebanon in light of renewed Israeli threats, and called for Israel to withdraw completely from Syria's Golan Heights, and Lebanon's Shebaa Farms.
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