Al-Hayat: Syria did not walk out of foreign ministers' meeting
Syria-Regional, Politics, 7/16/2002

The London- based al-Hayat daily quoted well-informed Syrian sources as saying that Syria has expressed its wonder that the Arab- four member committee did not respond to the request made by the Saudi foreign minister prince Saud al-Faisal to convene an official meeting with the foreign ministers of the committee of the Arab peace initiative which includes 10 ministers, and just to limit the invitation of the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt to convene a non- official meeting with the four- member committee in New York.

The Syrian sources told the paper in a statement issued on Monday that Damascus sees that the contacts of the three Arab ministers with the four- member international peace committee (US, Russia, Europe, UN) are bilateral, rather than representing the Arab peace initiative adopted at the Beirut Summit. A matter which means that there is no need to authorize them to talks on behalf of the "Arab initiative." The sources recalled the statement made by the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara just two days before in Cairo as he wondered about how there can be peace talks with the absence of the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon. Al-Shara had asserted that no side has the right to define who would sit at the negotiation table.

The sources indicated that al-Shara's departure from Cairo before the end of the meeting of the Arab committee was not because there was a dispute, rather because discussions on the political items completed and only the economic items remained. The sources commented that for these reasons the Syrian ambassador was assigned to follow up the meeting so as to have enough time to meet with his Egyptian counterpart before the plane takes off.

The Syrian sources added that al-Shara did not withdraw from the Cairo meetings, rather was pleased over its results, stressing that all Arab ministers are convinced that the Arab initiative was unanimously approved at the Arab summit.

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