Gulf foreign ministers voice support to just ME peace
Gulf-Regional, Politics, 3/12/2002

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has stressed that just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East will be only attainable by the implementation of international legitimacy resolutions, especially UN Security Council resolutions no. 242, 338 and 194.

A statement issued on Monday in al-Riyadh in conclusion of the meeting of the foreign ministers of the six GCC member states explained that just and comprehensive peace can be only maintained through the restoration of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and the foundation of their own independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as a capital and by Israel's complete pullout from the occupied Syrian Golan heights until June 4, 1967 border lines and completing the Israeli withdrawal from the Lebanese territories until the internationally recognized borders including the Shebaa farms and releasing all Arab detainees and prisoners in the Israeli jails.

The GCC ministerial council renewed its condemnation of the policy of escalation and expanding the cycle of violence pursued by the Israeli government on the neighboring states. A policy which pushes the region to the brick of collapse and threatens its security and stability, stressing that the current deterioration and the wave of violence are basically a result of continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the violation of the basics of peace set in the Madrid conference.

The GCC ministerial council called on the international community to work for attaining security and peace in the ME region. It also called on the US to embark on an effective and serious mechanism that can materialize the vision and perception stated by the US President and his secretary of state on the foundation of the Palestinian states in that to restore back the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, noting that the Israeli government is not serious to reaching a just and balanced peace.

The GCC ministerial council also underlined the importance of making a distinction between legitimate resistance of the military occupation and all forms of terrorism. It called for the mobilization of international efforts to fighting terrorism, and reasons behind it and to make a distinction between terrorism and the rights of people to resist the foreign occupation and liberate their territories.

The GCC also stressed the need of honoring the right of Iraq's independence, its territorial integrity and regional sovereignty, and non intervention in the internal affairs of Iraq. It, on the other hand, renewed its call on Iraq on the need to completely implement the obligations stated at the UN Security Council resolutions concerned.

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