Arab foreign ministers meet on regional issues

The Arab League Council's 109th session will open today at the level of foreign ministers at Arab League [AL] headquarters in Cairo.

The Arab foreign ministers will discuss the Israeli settlement policy in the occupied Arab lands and its continued occupation of the Golan Heights, south Lebanon and the Palestinian territories and other relevant issues. Officials at the AL said the ministers will concentrate on Middle East peace efforts and sanctions imposed on Libya.

An AL source said the Arab ministers will "reiterate commitment to March 1997 session in halting all forms of normalization with Israel due to the intransigent stances of the Israeli government towards the peace process and to linking normalization to attaining substantial progress in the peace process."

The permanent Palestinian representative to the AL, Muhammad Sbeih, said that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat will explain in detail to the Arab ministers the current situation on the Palestinian track and the Palestinian response to initiatives aimed at reviving the peace process. He added that Arafat will also "brief the participants in the session on the Israeli measures aiming at Judaizing East Jerusalem as well as measures intending to destroy the Palestinian economy."

An AL official added that the AL ministerial council will, at the request of Iraq, "discuss the Israeli space activities and the consequences of the Israeli espionage activities via satellites against the Arab national security." The source said the AL will also ask the UN Security Council to "suspend sanctions imposed on Libya, until the International Court of Justice gives its sentence concerning the Lockerbie case," MENA reported.

The source added that some 17 Arab foreign ministers will take part in the session, which will be chaired by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail with some 24 items on its agenda.