Muasher and the meeting of the Arab follow up committee
Jordan-Regional, Politics, 12/3/2002

Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marwan Muasher has denied that he had withdrawn from the meeting of the Arab follow up committee held at the level of the foreign ministers in Damascus on November 20 and 21st.

In an exclusive statement to the Jordanian weekly al-Hadath ( the event) in its yesterday's issue, the Jordanian minister said "I briefed the foreign ministers, participating in the meeting with the reasons why I was obliged to leave Damascus on the second day of the meeting because I was obliged to be in Amman to attend the meeting between the Jordanian King Abdullah II with a Palestinian delegation of the Arabs of 1948." Muasher added that the draft "road map" was discussed in the context of the Palestinian situation because it is an integral part of it and "I have submitted a presentation on that issue and I never pulled out from any meeting."

Muasher continued that the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco and the chairman of the PLO political department al-Qaddoumi supported his position but he added that the Syrian foreign minister Farouk al-Shara refused to discuss the "road map" project.

The paper said that Muasher abstained in his statement from defining the reasons behind the Syrian position concerning the American "road map" plan. However, Arab diplomatic sources which informed the paper about that, attributed the reasons behind the Syrian position to that the US under secretary of State Satterfield did not give a "script" of the said plan to the Syrian officials, rather he just briefed them about the plan which reached the Syrians through Arab sides.

Previous Stories:
  Al-Shara to the UN: Syria committed to helping the Palestinian cause   (12/2/2002)
  Syrian party official confers with Arab parties secretary   (11/27/2002)
  Arab follow up committee meets today in Damascus   (11/20/2002)
  US, Jordanian, Egyptian, UAE joint maneuvers   (9/30/2002)
  King Abdullah to visit Kuwait, Bahrain   (9/19/2002)
  Jordan asked the Arab participation in the quartet committee   (9/9/2002)

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