The international community is not heeding Arab calls for justice, Dina Ezzat reports Only days after Arabs pleaded with the UN Security Council to head up efforts to revive Arab-Israeli talks on ending Israeli occupation of Arab territories seized in 1967, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared he has no intention of returning the Golan Heights annexed from Syria by military force in the 5 June 1967 War. In statements published Tuesday in the Israeli press, Olmert called the occupied Golan Heights an "integral part" of Israel. "As long as I serve as prime minister, the Golan Heights will remain in our hands," Olmert said. Recently Olmert said he does not consider Syria a reliable partner with which to conduct negotiations. Also on Tuesday, Israeli Trade Minister Eli Yishai said that Israel should raze Palestinian villages in the Gaza Strip to stop militants firing from them. "What is needed is to evacuate the villages from where the rockets are being fired and raze them," Yishai, from the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, told Israeli public radio. Yishai, who also serves as deputy prime minister, added that Israel should do the same in "village after village until they stop firing rockets against us". Such aggressive statements by the senior Israeli officials came against a backdrop of persistent appeals by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for Hamas to recognise the state of Israel in order that the Palestinian Authority might garner the support of the international community to resume peace talks with Israel and for Israel and the US and EU to end their joint economic embargo of the Palestinians. The pressure exercised by Abbas has been echoed in leading Arab capitals, including Cairo and Riyadh. Indeed, Arab pressure has been increasing, despite the failure of Arab states and the Arab League to elicit action from the UN Security Council with regard to relaunching the Arab-Israeli peace process. "We have not managed to get the concrete actions that we wanted, but we opened the door before the international community to be seized with the developments of the Arab-Israeli file," said Hesham Youssef, chief of cabinet of Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa. Speaking to Al-Ahram Weekly from New York following a meeting between Moussa and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Youssef stressed the growing understanding that the international community should give more time and attention to developments in the Middle East. However, the Arab diplomat admitted that no clear-cut plan of action has been agreed upon, neither during talks between Moussa and Annan nor on the fringes of a special UN Security Council meeting that convened Thursday at the ministerial level upon collective Arab request. During the Thursday meeting, Arab countries proposed a six- point plan towards reactivating comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. "The objective is not to apportion blame or exchange accusations but to address the situation in the Middle East in a constructive and forward-looking manner with the aim of reviving the peace process through direct negotiations between parties to the conflict," the Arab plan stated. Presented in collective form, the plan specified three key points of action: a call from the UN Security Council to resume peace talks in accordance with a specific timeframe and under the auspices of the council; requesting the UN secretary-general to present the council with a report on the mechanisms adequate for the resumption of direct peace negotiations; and the convocation of a follow-up ministerial meeting for the Council to decide what measures may be taken. Echoed in a statement addressed to the council by Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al-Khalifa, the Arab proposal indicated Arab intentions to work with the US, the rest of the council and other directly involved players, including the Quartet, to realise Middle East peace. "Arab countries [are] ready to consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, enter into a peace agreement and establish normal relations with Israel," Al-Khalifa told the council. He added: "In exchange [Arabs want] Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territories, a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem and acceptance of an independent sovereign Palestinian state with [East] Jerusalem as its capital." The proposal -- supported by Greece, which holds the presidency of the council this month -- was well received by Annan who stressed that now is the time "to rebuild shattered bridge to peace". Russian Foreign Minister Serge Lavrov underlined the role of the UN Security Council in bringing peace to the Middle East while French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy re- affirmed the French proposal for an international conference on Middle East peace. In predictable fashion, Israel thwarted the Arab initiative. Dan Gillerman, Israel's permanent representative to the UN (Israel being the only country not to send a minister to the Council meeting) shrugged off the Arab proposal saying there are enough forums to discuss the Arab-Israeli conflict away from the Security Council. Gillerman, who did not shy away from expressing disinterest in the meeting, "given that such forums were not always helpful," worked with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett to prevent the Council from adopting a presidential statement. Indeed, the maximum Arabs managed to get was a decision by US President George Bush to redeploy Rice to the Middle East within days to consider ways to make progress on the ground. However, in press statements, the US secretary of state insisted that unless Palestinian President Abbas manages to form a unity government that recognises Israel's existence, renounces militant activities and acknowledges all previous agreements, no real progress is likely to be made. Arab diplomats say they will give the international community a few weeks to live up to recent positive statements before they decide their next move. For his part, Secretary-General Moussa said it was important not to be too optimistic. The failure of the international community to acknowledge legitimate Arab rights and to respond positively to Arab attempts to secure these rights was manifest once again Friday in Vienna when the annual conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to adopt a proposed Arab resolution on the threat posed by unregulated Israeli nuclear activities. The proposal, which called upon Israel to join the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to give up its nuclear arsenal, was taken off the agenda of the meeting upon a joint Israeli-American diplomatic effort supported by several European players. Moreover, the resolution adopted by the IAEA, on the need to establish a zone free of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, made no direct reference to Israel -- the only country that is not a member of the NPT. Israel has always insisted on its "nuclear ambiguity" policy, and is suspected of possessing at least 200 nuclear warheads. The IAEA resolution affirmed "the urgent need for all states in the Middle East to forthwith accept the application of full-scope [IAEA] safeguards to all their nuclear activities as an important confidence-building measure among all states in the region and a step in enhancing peace and security in the context of establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone." The resolution "invites" concerned countries to join the NPT and requests the IAEA's director general to conduct consultations with countries of the Middle East "to facilitate the early application of full-scope [IAEA] safeguards to all nuclear activities in the region." In press statements issued this week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit welcomed the resolution adopted by the IAEA as a positive step towards clearing the Middle East of nuclear weapons. Abul-Gheit, however, regretted the failure of the IAEA to adopt a resolution acknowledging the threat of unregulated and unguarded Israeli nuclear activities. Arab diplomats admit that the outcome of both the UN Security Council ministerial meeting and the IAEA annual conference failed to recognise their legitimate concerns. They argue, however, that these meetings offered the opportunity for Arabs to voice their concerns at the international level, and that this alone is a step forward.
