Arab leaders make efforts to control political storm
Arab leaders today launched into a flurry of diplomatic activity, including a trip by Syrian President Bashar Assad to Saudi Arabia, as they sought to control a political storm over Syria’s role in neighbouring Lebanon.
The leaders also were trying to maintain newly-found momentum towards lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace.
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, fresh off a trip to Europe, returned to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik to meet with his Egyptian counterpart less than a month after a breakthrough truce with Israel – a cease-fire already disrupted by a suicide bombing last week that killed five Israelis.
Abbas and Hosni Mubarak were expected to discuss his European tour and an upcoming March 15 meeting of Palestinian factions, at which the parties were expected to discuss signing an agreement to halt violence.
The foreign ministers of Jordan and Saudi Arabia also were to meet with the Egyptian President in Sharm el-Sheik, and a broader gathering of Arab foreign ministers was being held at Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa has said the Syrian withdrawal issue would not be on the ministers’ agenda – and neither the Syrian nor the Lebanese foreign minister were attending.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said last night after meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud al-Faisal, that they had discussed how to “find a mechanism to implement” last year’s UN Security Council’s resolution calling for all foreign forces to leave Lebanon.
“Egypt is encouraging Syria to settle the situation surrounding Lebanon as soon possible,” Aboul Gheit said.
The resolution was directed at Syria, which has about 15,000 troops in Lebanon, and has taken on a new importance in the wake of the February 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Many Lebanese blame Syria or its agents and allies in Lebanon for Hariri’s death, although both governments deny it.
But in the wake of Hariri’s killing in a huge bomb blast in downtown Beirut, Lebanese protesters have turned out in the tens of thousands demanding that Syrian troops and intelligence agents leave Lebanon and that the Damascus-allied Lebanese president and prime minister resign.
As premier for most of Lebanon’s 1975-90 post-civil war years, Hariri is widely credited with rebuilding Beirut. The billionaire businessman also had close ties to Saudi Arabia – he made his fortune in construction there, had dual Saudi citizenship and was close to the ruling Al-Saud family.
Assad, who was scheduled to travel to Riyadh later today, was to be accompanied by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, who had been in Riyadh for consultations on Monday – the day the Lebanese government resigned.
On the Palestinian-Israeli front, Abbas was visiting with Mubarak after wrapping up his first visit to Western Europe as leader of the Palestinians. He has received strong backing from the international community to proceed with reforms within the Palestinian Authority and to work to rein in militant groups.
While in London, Abbas also received a pledge of economic assistance put at £630m (€914.6m).
Abbas was last in Sharm el-Sheik on February 8, when he and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to stop violence against each other. Mubarak, their host, has been aggressively involved in bringing the two sides together after the November death of Yasser Arafat.
But the verbal commitment to stop violence took its first major hit when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Tel Aviv nightclub last Friday, killing five Israelis.
Islamic Jihad leaders claimed responsibility for the Tel Aviv bombing, but blamed the attack on a local rogue cell working on orders from the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah and not from Islamic Jihad leaders in the Palestinian areas.
The US administration blamed Palestinian groups based in Syria.
Abbas said in London that the attack was carried out by extremists trying to destroy efforts for peaceful negotiations with the Israelis and to dissuade Palestinians from a democratic path.
Since taking office in January, Abbas has deployed forces throughout Gaza to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli targets and negotiated with militant groups a temporary halt to all attacks on Israel.
A Jihad spokesman in the Palestinian territories, Khaled al-Batsh, told the Egyptian daily al-Ahram today that his group would participate in the March 15 talks, but said signing a truce depends on Israel’s responses to Palestinian demands. Palestinian militant groups’ demands have included the release of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
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