Draft of the concluding statement for the Arab foreign ministers meeting
Regional, Politics, 3/15/1999

ArabicNews.com has exclusively obtained the draft of the concluding statement for the Arab foreign ministers, whose works are to begin Wednesday.

The two-day session of the AL council will take place at Arab League headquarters at the Arab foreign ministers' level under the chairmanship of Somalia.

The foreign ministers are discussing 35 items, topped by the development of the situation in Iraq and the no-fly zone imposed on Iraq.

The draft statement obtained by ArabicNews.com shows the Arab states taking a clear stance that asks the United States and Britain not to use force against Iraq in the two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, laying the full international responsibility on the two countries' governments, considering the shelling as an internationally illegal aggressive action, confirming that the UN Security Council's resolutions do not have any provision that allows imposing the two so-called "no-fly zones" and that they are aggressive acts that imply the use of military power against Iraq's sovereignty, national safety and political independence.

The draft also includes Iraq's demand to the Arab states to exert joint efforts to agree on a practical humanitarian formula for resolving the problem of the Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Saudi citizens who went missing during and after the Gulf War.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait oppose including this item on the agenda, and the draft will include an attached note from the Arab League's secretary general that specifies these states' positions and reasons for objecting to this item.

The draft includes the draft treaty for making the Middle East a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, with a focus on nuclear weapons. The Arab League's secretary general calls for convening a meeting with the AL permanent delegates regarding this issue and for directing the league's missions at United Nations headquarters in New York, Geneva and in the countries of the permanent members of the UN Security Council to explain the Arab position toward this issue and to direct messages to the Arab foreign ministers from the eight countries (Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, Sweden, Mexico, New Zealand, Slovenia and Egypt) who issued a statement on June ninth 1998 that calls for a world free of nuclear weapons, in order to move to support the Arab efforts in the meeting of the preparatory committee for the parts' conference in the year 2000, which is specified for reviewing the non-proliferation treaty this coming April in New York.

The draft asks to intensify communications among the Arab group, the Islamic countries group, the African countries group, the Non-Aligned Movement and the rest of the other international groups at United Nations headquarters in New York to support the Arab position.

The Arab League's secretary general will also direct messages to the foreign ministers of Japan, Holland, Chile and Turkey to understand the risks in the nuclear non-proliferation system in case of "not" listing the Middle East's resolution in the final report of the preparatory meeting.

The draft calls for resuming and intensifying Arab efforts and joint coordination between the AL and the Arab ambassadors in Vienna in order to make communications with the groups and the concerned countries to stress in the coming meetings for the conservatives council and the general conference for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to re-ratify the resolution for applying the guarantees of the IAEA in the Middle East and the decision of the Israeli nuclear capabilities prepared by the Arab group to list it on the forthcoming agenda of the general conference of the IAEA that will be held in September.

The draft resolutions included studying the probability of cooperation on the risks posed by Israeli space activity on Arab national security, establishing an Arab office for remote sensing and establishing an Arab space agency.

The draft expressed the Arab states' anxiety over continuing military cooperation between Turkey and Israel, urging Turkey to work in order to reconsider the military cooperation for the negative risks it forms to Arab national security, supporting Iraq's and Syria's rights to the water of the Degla and Euphrates rivers, urging the Turkish government to enter into trilateral (Syria-Iraq-Turkey) negotiations as soon as possible to reach a final agreement for a reasonable and a just division of the water that guarantees the three countries' rights according to the provisions of international law.

The draft laws also expressed Arab anxiety over Turkey's continuation of establishing dams and other projects on the two rivers without preconsultations with the two border countries on using these international two rivers and called on it to stop transporting polluted water to the two neighbors (Syria and Iraq) for its dangerous effects on potable water, irrigation and the environment, and urging the Arab states to reconsider their dealings with corporations and companies that have relations with implementing the Turkish projects on the Degla and Euphrates rivers until a trilateral meeting is convened.

The draft condemns terrorism in all its forms and aspects, and urged the countries that shelter terrorists not to do so or to provide facilities to them that help them practice their destructive activities. It urges these countries to take the necessary legal arrangements and administrative procedures to monitor the terrorists' movements as well as to limit them and deliver to the Arab states a list of their names and delivering them to the concerned countries as wanted for justice, and the Arab side, citing Europe, with the European side accommodating facilities to the terrorists under the right of asylum.

The draft confirmed the United Arab Emirates' sovereignty over three islands under dispute with Iran: Greater Tanb, Lesser Tanb and Abu Mousa. It also confirmed absolute support for all procedures and peaceful means taken by the UAE to regain sovereignty over the three islands.

The draft denounced Iran's continuation in implementing procedures that aim at dedicating the occupation and violating the UAE's sovereignty, such as the recent military maneuvers and establishing a municipality on Abu Mousa island which shakes security and stability in the area. It urged Iran to end its occupation of the islands, to stop practicing the fait accompli by force, stop establishing constructions on these Islands, cancel all procedures, remove all establishments, and follow peaceful means of solving the current conflict over the islands according to principles of international law, including accepting the case to be presented to the International Court of Justice.

The draft urges the international community to resume taking procedures capable of putting and end to some foreign parties that bury waste in the Somali territories and to end illegal fishing in Somali regional waters.

The draft assured the concluding statement support the Palestinian people's right and national authority to declare an independent Palestinian state on May 4 at the end of the transitional period according to the agreement signed between the Palestinian and Israeli sides.

The draft strongly denounced the decision taken by the Israeli Knesset on January 26 that makes it more difficult to give back lands that were obtained by Israel (the Golan and East Jerusalem), and considered the resolution invalid, a new obstacle placed by Israel in the course of peace and an obvious challenge to the will of the international community and the United Nations resolutions. It denounced Israel's refusal to resume negotiations on the Syrian - Lebanese tracks from the point at which they stopped three years ago and asked the peace sponsors and members of permanent membership in the UN Security Council to stress on Israel for resuming negotiations.

The draft urged the AL's general trusteeship and the host countries for the Palestinian refugees to discuss establishing an Arab site on the Internet that would disclose the Israeli violations and practices and make necessary procedures with the fronts that work in the same field, enhancing and supporting connections with the Vatican to maintain the positive positions taken regarding Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause and authorizing the Arab group at the U.N. to ask the U.N. to send a fact-finding mission to check the situations in the Palestinian territories and condemn the Israeli government for burying on purpose toxic waste from Israeli chemical factories in the natural preserves in the Palestinian occupied lands, which endangers the Palestinians' lives and drinking water.

The draft condemned the attempts aimed at dedicating occupying the Syrian Golan, Israeli policy aimed at changing the natural and demographic status of the Golan through establishing more settlements.

The draft also strongly condemned Israel for its constant occupation of parts of the Lebanese south and the western Bekaa, urging the international community to work on implementing UN Security Council's resolution 425 issued in 1978 that calls for Israel's immediate and unconditional withdrawal from all the Lebanese occupied lands to the internationally recognized borders.

The draft also condemned the continuous violations by the occupation power stealing land and holding the Lebanese detainees in its prisons as hostages for bargaining in its suppressive and unjust policy and calling on the international community to take all procedures with Israel to release all the Lebanese captives and kidnapped - immediately.

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  EU parliamentarians stress the Arab identity of Jerusalem   (3/15/1999)
  UAE criticizes Iran's behavior over island issue   (3/15/1999)
  Iraq persistent about discussing the missing during Cairo meeting   (3/12/1999)
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  Israel continues bombardment against south Lebanon   (3/12/1999)
  Turkey refuses to resume works of the tripartite committee   (3/12/1999)
  Israeli rabbi and the Golan Heights   (3/12/1999)
  French and US position on Iraq and Gulf states' double-speak   (3/11/1999)
  Two Iraqi proposals on the agenda of Arab foreign ministers   (3/10/1999)
  Cohen for providing early warning systems services to the Gulf states   (3/9/1999)
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