Arab Summit deliberation, a formulation committee for crown prince Abdullah
Regional, Politics, 3/28/2002

The Arab Summit which started its deliberation on Tuesday morning in Beirut unanimously approved a proposal made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad provided for setting up a committee to formulate the Saudi initiative.

This already approved committee includes delegations from Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Morocco in order to formulate the initiative proposed by the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

However, the Arab summit opened works of its 14th session. The opening ceremony was attended by Arab heads of delegation of Kings, Presidents, vice Presidents, deputy prime ministers and ministers and the secretary general of the Arab league.

The summit's opening ceremony was also attended by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan, the Spanish prime minister who is also the current President of the European Union, Javier Solana the official in charge of the foreign policy at the European Union, the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic conference; the secretary general of the African Unity organization Amara Issa, the secretary general of the Franchophonic organization Butrous Ghali; the secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council Abdul Rahman al-Ateyah, the secretary of the Arab Maghreb federation al-Habib Bule'ras, the foreign minister of south Africa, the former secretaries of the Arab league Ismat Abdul Miquid and al-Chazli al-Qlibi, the UN special envoy in Afghanistan el- Akhder al-Ibraheimi, the EU special envoy to the MR Miguel Moratinos, the UN special envoy to the ME Terry Rod Larsen, the European Union ambassador in Lebanon, the chairman of the Idslamic Bank for development and high ranking Lebanese officials.

The opening session started by a speech by Jordan, former head of the Arab summit, read by the Jordanian prime minister Ali Abu al-Ragheb on behalf of the Jordanian King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz.

Then Abu al-Ragheb invited the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud to assume the presidency of the 14th session of the summit.

After he read the speech of the Lebanese Republic, the secretary general of the Arab league AL Amre Mousa delivered a speech, followed by other speeches made by Aznar, Annan, the OIC chief, the secretary of the African Unity Organization, and Ghali.

Mousa announced an Iraqi initiative and then President Lahoud announced that the opening session ended.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Arab summit conference was resumed in a work session attended by President al- Assad, and the Arabs kings, Presidents and heads of the Arab delegations and the AL chief read topics listed on the summit's agenda.

Then other speeches were made by the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, the Moroccan King Muhammad VI, the King of Bahrian Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa, President bashar al-Assad and President Ismael Jela of the Republic of Djibouti.

Later the second work session started in which speeches of the republic of Somalia Abdul Qasem Salad Hassan, the prime minister of Egypt Atif Ebeid, the Kuwaiti foreign minister, the President of Yemen, the Iraqi deputy chairman of the revolution's council, the first minister in Mauritania, the secretary of the Libyan committee for African affairs Abdul salaam al-Turieki.

Then the Lebanese President announced the end of the second work session and the conferees to resume their work today ( Thursday ) at 10 a.m. (Lebanon's local time ).

On the other hand, the Lebanese presidency issues a statement clarifying on why the speech of Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian authority was not broadcast at the second work session, in which the Lebanese President Emil Lahoud said that to clarify the "misunderstanding" relating to Arafat's speech to this summit: " I want to make it clear that we are all careful that Arafat's speech to reach this summit and through it the whole world. We have had asked our brothers in the Palestinian delegation to record this speech in order to be broadcast in the conference's hall immediately upon its arrival because 'live transmission' might be vulnerable by the Israeli side violation of the line and thereby disturbing the speech." On the other hand, the Egyptian President has denied that his absence from attending the summit to have link to the initiative of the Saudi crown prince Abdullah. Mubarak said he is among the greatest supporters for this initiative.

On the other hand, the King of Bahrain Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa al-Khaleifa left Beirut on Wednesday evening back home after he attended the inaugural session of the Beirut Arab summit and delivered his country's speech.

Also the vice President of the United Arab Emirates UAE Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashed al-Maktoum left Beirut on Wednesday back home after taking part in the summit. The Spanish foreign minister Maria Aznar and the EU foreign policy official Javier Solana left Beirut for their respective countries, after taking part in the deliberations of the summit.

Previous Stories:
  King Mohammed calls Arab states to back Saudi peace initiative   (3/27/2002)
  Draft resolutions relating to Lebanon, Palestine and the Golan   (3/27/2002)
  Al-Assad arrived in Beirut by land   (3/27/2002)
  Arab summit starts deliberations today in Beirut   (3/27/2002)
  Mubarak's advice to Arafat to stay away from the Arab summit   (3/27/2002)
  Arab Summit deals with comprehensive peace, Iraq - kuwait, regional political and economic challenges   (3/27/2002)
  Mubarak on issues surrounding the Arab Summit   (3/27/2002)
  Qaddafi: I will not attend the Arab summit   (3/26/2002)

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