The Beirut Arab Summit declaration
Regional, Politics, 3/29/2002

In its 14th ordinary session in conclusion of its works concluded on Thursday in Beirut, the Arab summit issued a declaration. It was read by the Lebanese foreign minister Mahmoud al-Hammoud.

An Arab summit in Beirut unanimously endorsed a plan for Middle East peace on Thursday, offering Israel normal ties and full peace in exchange for complete withdrawal from occupied Arab land.

The Beirut Declaration demanded the lifting of U.N. sanctions on Iraq imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and rejected any attack on Iraq. "We stress our total rejection of any attack on Iraq," it said.

The declaration said Israel must also accept a Palestinian state and agree to a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem in line with a 1948 U.N. resolution that calls for them to be repatriated or compensated.

In return the Arab states would "consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended and enter into a peace agreement with Israel (and) establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace," the document says. Following is an official translation of the full text of a Saudi-inspired peace plan adopted by an Arab summit in Beirut on Thursday.

The Arab Peace Initiative The Council of Arab States at the Summit Level at its 14th Ordinary Session, Reaffirming the resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo Extra-Ordinary Arab Summit that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries, to be achieved in accordance with international legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli government, Having listened to the statement made by his royal highness Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which his highness presented his initiative calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land-for-peace principle, and Israel's acceptance of an in-ependent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel, Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its strategic option as well.

2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm: I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following: I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region. II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian partition which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.

5. Calls upon the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighborliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.

6. Invites the international community and all countries and organizations to support this initiative.

7. Requests the chairman of the summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the secretary general of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim states and the European Union.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said on Thursday that Arabs were embracing peace with his country's Middle East initiative for the United States to push Israel in that direction.

In an interview with CNN television on the sidelines of an Arab summit, Prince Saud said Israel had a chance for security and peace with all its neighbors, but had to offer the same to the Arab states.

"For the first time there is a proposal that (says) security for Israel will come from signing a peace treaty with all the Arab countries at the same time, all the neighborhood...would be at peace with Israel and would recognize its right to exist," he said.

"If this doesn't provide security for Israel I assure (that) the muzzle of a gun is not going to provide that security." Prince Saud said the onus was now on Washington to bring Israel face-to-face with the plan, which proposes normal Arab relations with Israel in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land.

"The United States is the one that supports Israel militarily, economically and politically. It is the only country that can wield influence on Israel," he said, urging Washington to lean on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"This is the time where sense must be talked into Sharon. War and conflict now are in his head. This has to be removed from his mind and only the United States can do that." At least 20 Israelis were killed in the latest suicide bombing in the seaside resort of Netanya on Wednesday.

"It would be the ultimate tragedy for these people who have suffered in their history, such a long and arduous history in which suffering was so awful in many instances, to... become the perpetrators of that suffering on a gallant people like the Palestinians," Prince Saud said.

"It is the actions of Israel that is creating these suicide bombers and it is that violence that has to stop, the demeaning of the Palestinian people has to stop."

Previous Stories:
  Beirut summit, a successful model for Arab summits, Moroccan FM   (3/28/2002)
  Moroccan association for support to Palestinians calls Arab leaders to back Intifada   (3/28/2002)
  Al-Assad reiterates commitment to just and comprehensive peace   (3/28/2002)

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