The road to Beirut

Hours before Sharon decided to undo his siege of Arafat, Arab foreign ministers were wondering if there is still hope for peace. Dina Ezzat and Soha Abdelaty report
Against the backdrop of a horrifying escalation in Israeli aggression against Palestinians and increasing US military threats against Iraq, Arab foreign ministers met to agree on a plan of action for both issues. Surprisingly, a broad consensus on what needs to be done was secured during the meeting of the Arab Foreign Ministers' Council.
"There were no major disagreements, no shouting sessions, no walking out of the meeting and no harsh exchanges of accusations. Unlike most other meetings of the Arab Foreign Ministers' Council, this one was fairly smooth sailing," commented an Arab League source.
And, according to other informed sources, there was more debate on the Arab League secretary- general's proposed plan to restructure the Arab organisation than on matters relating to the management of the Arab-Israeli conflict or the rift between Iraq and Kuwait. The latter was handled with particular care to avoid divisiveness at a time when the need for Arab unity is paramount.
With Israeli bellicosity rampant and Israeli military aggression against Palestinians escalating to unprecedented levels (60 Palestinians were killed Friday on a day that Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal termed "Black Friday"), Arab officials had to offer something to both a frustrated Arab public and the rest of the world. And, in the admitted absence of any concrete measures, the Saudi peace initiative suggested a few weeks ago by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah seemed the obvious thing to work on, even for countries like Libya and Syria which had initially voiced concerns at the idea.
The Arab foreign ministers began by issuing an appeal at the meeting that convened on the eve of the council's calling on all concerned international bodies and governments to end Israel's aggression. There, the Saudi initiative was also developed into what Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and Kuwaiti State Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Al-Sabah (who took the rotated chair of this council) called "the last chance for peace."
The initiative originally called for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands occupied in 1967, in return for full Arab "normalisation." During the talks, the term "normalisation" was amended to "peace" with Israel.
"There is great support from the Arab countries [for the initiative]," commented Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Al-Maashar on his way to the meetings. Even an apprehensive Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, who found it "too early to put the Saudi ideas in written proposal format," and a sceptical Libyan foreign minister, who expressed concern that "Israel would ever respond to any peace initiative," conceded that the initiative would reveal to the world that Israel is uninterested in peace.
"This initiative takes talk about the Arab-Israeli conflict away from the Israel-US imposed security perspective and puts it in its appropriate political context," commented Nabil Shaath, Palestinian minister of planning and international cooperation.
The initiative was fleshed out with further detail after limited consultations with other relevant parties that included Secretary-General Moussa, Saudi Foreign Minister Al-Faisal and Shaath. The right of return for Palestinian refugees was restated and the need to secure Israeli withdrawal from Syrian and Lebanese land, in addition to the Palestinian territories, was emphasised.
"The initiative will be officially proposed to the Arab Summit in Beirut later this month and it will be up to the summit to decide what it wants to do with it," said Moussa.
Arab foreign ministers were not presenting the Saudi initiative as an alternative to the US plan to implement the Tenet understandings and the Mitchell recommendations as first steps towards a process of political negotiation. Even the Syrians and Libyans did not exclude the idea of US involvement, though they remarked that they hoped Washington would adopt a more balanced approach towards the Arab-Israeli conflict.
"We still want the Mitchell and Tenet plans to be implemented because these steps are necessary to calm the security situation, but [efforts for peace] should not stop [there]. There also has to be a political vision for a comprehensive resolution, which is the aim of the initiative," Jordan's foreign minister said.
Moreover, the Saudi peace initiative is now complemented by, rather than rivalled by, the Libyan initiative for peace that was offered at the Arab summit in Amman last year. "The Libyan initiative offers a strategic framework for a potential peace settlement in the Middle East," Moussa said.
As an Arab League source put it, "There is not much contradiction with the ideas offered last year by Libyan leader Gaddafi, (who proposed a solution based on the return of the Palestinian refugees, a shared government of Jerusalem and a demilitarisation of Israel's weapons of mass destruction)."
"It is now agreed that if the Libyan leader goes to the summit his ideas will be discussed side by side with the Saudi ideas, and if he misses the summit then the ideas will be discussed at a later high-level meeting, possibly an extraordinary summit," said Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Treiki. Gaddafi will almost certainly be absent from the Beirut summit in view of the security threats posed by angry Lebanese Shi'ite groups who accuse the Libyan leader of involvement in the kidnap of and consequent disappearance of one of their leaders. In other words, direct action on the Libyan initiative has been put on the back burner, at least for now.
So, with the Saudi initiative, the Arab bottom line regarding a potential settlement of the Arab- Israeli conflict, the Arab League and concerned Arab capitals are currently holding intensive talks with the US, the EU and the UN on what now needs to be done. "I spoke with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on the situation in the occupied territories and the need to deal with it," Moussa said.
"The hope is that after the Beirut summit adopts a resolution to support the initiative, the Arabs and the EU will then adopt a common plan of action based on this initiative and we can move to the Security Council with a common Arab-European plan," commented Shaath.
While many Arab diplomats see this scenario as highly unlikely, they believe that the proposal made by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah for overall peace in the Middle East offered Arab leaders a face-saving plan of action for their upcoming summit. "Otherwise the summit would not have much more to offer beyond the financial support that was agreed upon during the foreign ministers' meeting," commented an Arab diplomat.
Sparing further embarrassment for Arab leaders were the talks initiated on 7 March between Iraq and the UN. The Arab summit does not now have to split over the nature of support offered to Iraq in the face of intensified US threats against it; UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described his talks with Iraq's Foreign Minister Nagi Sabri Al- Hudithi as positive. Al-Hudithi, who briefed the Arab foreign ministers on his talks in New York with Annan, also described the results as positive and constructive. The second round of Annan-Al- Hudithi talks is scheduled for mid-April, a couple of weeks after the Arab summit ends on 29 March.
"We appreciate the serious diplomatic efforts undertaken by Secretary-General Amr Moussa [in relation to the Iraq-Kuwait state of relations] and we must say that we are relieved to see dialogue resume between Iraq and the UN," commented the Kuwaiti state minister of foreign affairs. He added, "We want Iraq to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy."
Al-Sabah's statements ended the controversy stemming from Moussa's earlier plan for saving Iraq from the threat of US military strikes. Baghdad's refusal to grant access to international arms inspectors ever since 1999 is touted by Washington as the reason for the US's wrath. Al-Sabah's statements helped create an atmosphere of unity under which the summit could adopt a resolution supporting the resumption of talks between Iraq and the UN and calling on both sides to agree to a plan of action that will ultimately alleviate the misery of the Iraqi people, who have suffered under economic sanctions for over a decade.
"We believe that this dialogue is the best way to deal with the problems between Iraq and the UN; this dialogue needs to be pursued," commented Youssef Bin Alawi, the Omani minister of state for foreign affairs.
The Beirut summit, then, should not suffer a deadlock over either the Arab-Israeli conflict or Iraq. "There will be a few disagreements but no major problems are to be expected," commented a source.
Disagreement may surface more forcefully over the reform plan for the Arab League that was put in motion at the last Arab summit in Amman. At that summit, resolutions were adopted giving Moussa a wide-ranging mandate; decision-making prerogatives were bestowed on the Arab Summit Follow-Up Committee; and the level of representation in the Arab Economic and Social Council was upgraded to prime ministerial level.
"Secretary-General Moussa is convinced that for the Arab League to work, its apparatus, including the Summit Follow-Up Committee and the Economic and Social Council, have to be able to take decisions when the need arises and secure their implementation. Nevertheless, some Arab capitals are opposed to this trend and it would be subject to discussion in the summit," commented an Arab League source.
Meanwhile, as Arab foreign ministers were agreeing on the fundamentals of the summit agenda ahead of final approval at a ministerial meeting to take place in the Lebanese capital on 25 March, the Lebanese government was speeding up its preparations for the summit. "Beirut is getting ready for the summit in every way that could be imagined," said an Arab League official just returned from the Lebanese capital. "The roads, the hotels, the restaurants, the stores and the people are all ready," the official added.
Anticipation of the summit was clearly voiced by Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hamoud. In a joint press conference with Moussa and Al-Sabah, Hamoud said: "It is a great honour for us, the Lebanese people. We are waiting. We are waiting for Arab officials and the media in our capital: Beirut."
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