28 March - 3 April 2002
Issue No.579
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 28 March - 3 April 2002 Issue No.579 |
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Peace prospects
The Saudi initiative was the star item on the agenda of the Arab summit. Nevine Khalil, in Beirut, finds out how and why
The Saudi Arabian initiative was kept under wraps during all the preparatory meetings that paved the way to the Beirut summit. According to reports, the initiative was not discussed in detail at any level until Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah put it before Arab leaders, yesterday.
From the top: Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah greeted by Lebanese President Lahoud; Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah welcomes PA Foreign Minister Farouk Kaddoumi in Beirut (photos:AP)
The initiative is based on three pillars, these being: normal relations between all Arabs and Israel, withdrawal of Israeli occupying forces to the pre-1967 borders and the implementation of the relevant UN resolutions.
Despite the secrecy, a draft of the Saudi proposal leaked to the press discloses that the summit will work towards asserting that a just and comprehensive peace with Israel is the Arabs' strategic choice. The summit will call upon the Israeli government to review its current policy and accept the olive branch offered by them.
The Saudi proposal also calls for a fair solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees, to be agreed upon in accordance with UN Resolution 194. The addition of resolution 194, calling for the speedy repatriation of Palestinian refugees or their compensation, was essential for countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Syria which host hundreds of thousands of those Palestinian refugees who fled their homes in 1948. The Saudi proposal also states the necessity of creating a sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
In return, Arab countries will declare the Arab-Israeli conflict over. After the summit, a follow-up committee will be formed to gauge what progress has been made on the initiative, if any.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said that, once the Saudi initiative is adopted at the summit, it will become an Arab initiative and become a united Arab responsibility.
The Palestinians welcomed the Saudi initiative, and it was well received in some quarters in Israel. Israeli left-wing politician Yossi Sarid suggested, this week, that the summit should adopt the initiative and move quickly to form an Arab negotiating team to sit with the Israelis and reach a conclusion. But the terminology used by Crown Prince Abdullah in announcing the initiative caused a mixed reaction. Describing the peace to be offered by the Arabs as "normalisation" has antagonised several of the Arab political players. A top Saudi source told Al-Ahram Weekly that normalisation is synonymous with the much-touted 'comprehensive peace' label. "What is the difference? The point is to achieve our goal."
He added that the various controversies and arguments which have erupted around the initiative have not deterred or discouraged Riyadh. "There is always a different opinion to any idea; there's nothing unusual about what happened." Despite the Saudis having announced their proposal last month without conducting prior consultations with any of the Arab states, including Egypt, officials have denied suggestions that there are any hard feelings.
"We are not competing with the Saudis," stressed Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher. "We are in continuous consultations and, even if we don't consult, we have the same target."
The initiative, the Saudis insist, provides a real alternative to the current dead end in the peace process and is the first to give Israel normal relations with Arabs, provided it withdraws to the pre-1967 borders. "It is a give-and-take offer," one Saudi Arabian diplomat said, "and we are basing it on the terms Egypt used in negotiating peace with Israel. This was the point which caused the most grumbling in Israel because the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese don't want to be short- changed when signing peace with Israel. The Arab states too want to take back all their territories in return for peace agreements with Israel."
The Saudi initiative is also viewed by its proponents as a declaration of the Arabs' inistance on the peace option, which would expose to world public opinion the fact that it is Sharon's Israel that is acting as an obstacle to Arab-Israeli peace.
This is not wholly new, however. Arab leaders had announced at the 1995 Arab League summit in Cairo that peace with Israel was a strategic Arab choice. According to Maher, the adoption of the initiative on the pan-Arab level will put Israel to the challenge, as it will reveal which parties are truly committed to peacemaking and which are unwilling to walk the extra mile.
A Saudi diplomatic source denied that the initiative was a spur-of-the-moment proposal -- made by Prince Abdullah over dinner with prominent New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman -- but, rather, that much thought had gone into it. "Timing was crucial," he said. "We didn't want to release it too early before the summit to avoid it being shot to pieces; but we also wanted it to be early enough to allow parties to react to it and test their responses."
However, the source did not specify for how long Riyadh sat on the proposal before making it public. He also denied that this was a public relations tactic to improve Saudi Arabia's image in the US, especially following the 11 September attacks, allegedly masterminded and financed by Saudi citizens. He said that Riyadh has always been involved in the Palestinian issue, although "we usually work behind the scenes because we're not a frontline state in direct confrontation with Israel," he noted. "However, the situation has deteriorated too far for us to just stand and watch.
For the time being, however, tabling proposals is as far as the Saudis are willing to go. They will be stepping back for the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese to work out details with the Israelis. Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi Al-Aridi agrees, saying that the Saudi initiative is "a good umbrella for us to deal with the Israelis." He sees the initiative as a political and diplomatic move that has received heavy coverage in the media.
"The Israelis could no longer say that the Arabs don't want peace and are terrorists," Al-Aridi said. "We have shown that peace is exactly what we want."
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