Arab nations make new push for peace
Arab nations have asked for a United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting next month to launch a new effort to settle all Arab-Israeli conflicts and restore peace to the Middle East.
In a letter to the council president yesterday, Sudan’s acting ambassador, who currently chairs the Arab Group at the United Nations, asked the council to hold an open meeting between September 19 and 25 when ministers will be in New York for the General Assembly’s annual ministerial session.
Omer Bashir Manis said the request was in accordance with a decision of Arab League foreign ministers on August 20 who want the ministerial meeting “to consider the settlement of the Arab-Israel conflict at all tracks”, according to an unofficial translation.
The Arab League says a settlement should include establishing a Palestinian state, settling the Golan Heights issue with Syria, and promoting peace with Lebanon after this summer’s brutal 34-day war.
Israel’s UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said last week he doubted a new Arab League initiative would consider Israel’s security needs fairly, insisting the “road map” for peace unveiled in 2003 remained the only viable option.
The “road map” was drafted by the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia and aimed to establish a Palestinian state by 2005, but Israel and the Palestinians have failed to carry out the parallel steps in the peace plan and it has languished.
The security council will probably consider the request in the coming days.
“I think so far we have been receiving favourable reactions from most members of the security council,” the Arab League’s envoy to the United Nations, Yahya Mahmassani, said.
“In view of the deteriorating situation in Lebanon and Palestine and the deadlock the peace process has reached, I think it’s very important that the security council shoulders its responsibility and finds a mechanism to implement its resolutions,” he said.
The Arab League is working on proposals for a new initiative and Mahmassani said one of the basic elements would be the Arab Peace Initiative launched by Saudi Arabia and adopted by the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002.
The Arab peace plan calls on Israel to withdraw from all territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war, the establishment of a Palestinian state, and a solution for Palestinian refugees.
Palestinians want Gaza, the West Bank and traditionally Arab east Jerusalem for their future state, while Syria wants the return of the Golan Heights.
Under the plan, Israel would receive full recognition once it fulfilled the Arab conditions.
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