Tending to the tinderbox

At an emergency meeting of the Arab League, Arab foreign ministers resolved to draw world attention to the occupied territories. Dina Ezzat reports
Amid unmistakable signs of disagreement, Arab foreign ministers met yesterday in the Cairo headquarters of the Arab League for an emergency meeting that aimed to formulate a response to the increasingly volatile situation in the occupied territories and to continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. Present were Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa. The meeting was held as a closed session.
Diplomatic sources say the proposed response will aim to extend international involvement in efforts to resolve the crisis. In his opening statement before yesterday's meeting, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Gassim, who currently chairs the Arab Council of Foreign Ministers, referred repeatedly to the need for more international involvement in the Middle East, particularly from the US, the UN Security Council and the European Union.
Arafat, too, stressed the need for greater international attention. He blamed insufficient international involvement for the situation in the occupied territories and said continued international disengagement would only encourage more Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, their property and their holy sites.
Palestine was among several Arab states that submitted working papers asserting the need to delegate Arab envoys to lobby in Washington for stronger US involvement in the implementation of the Mitchell report and the Tenet plan. It was also suggested that a delegation of Arab envoys travel to New York for talks with Security Council members over the need to adopt a resolution committing international monitors to the Middle East. Envoys should also go to Geneva to discuss the need for a conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, which deals with civilians under occupation, it was suggested. And a proposal was made for closer Arab cooperation with UNESCO over the status of Jerusalem.
But the Syrian delegation, supported by Iraq, questioned the emphasis on international involvement. The Syrians, Al-Ahram Weekly learnt, strongly reminded the meeting that a total political and economic boycott of Israel by Arab countries was possible in retaliation for Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Nagi Sabri also warned that the meeting should not adopt weak proposals. "The decisions our meeting takes have to match public feeling and outrage. They must also take into account the obvious antagonistic messages sent from Israel against Syria and Lebanon," Sabri told reporters before going into the meeting.
Yesterday's gathering took place against a backdrop of concerted Arab diplomatic moves on several fronts internationally. During a Monday Security Council meeting, Egypt insisted that the council take the necessary steps to encourage the parties in the Middle East to resume the peace process. Speaking before the council, Egypt's alternate permanent representative to the UN, Reda Beibars, argued that there is a clear need for monitors to help contain the situation in the occupied territories.
And two days earlier, in Washington, Osama El-Baz, chief foreign policy adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, told senior US officials that the US needs to issue a statement reemphasising Washington's involvement in the peace process. El-Baz also suggested that Israel's opposition to international monitoring could be overcome if the US sent American monitors to the region, for at least a few days of confidence building.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, Arab delegates worked to initiate a conference of the Fourth Geneva Convention. They aim to reassert unequivocal world recognition that Israel is the occupying power in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. If convened, the conference will put international pressure on Israel to end its violations of the fourth convention, which requires an occupying power to treat an occupied people with dignity.
In Durban, South Africa, a world conference against racism will open on 31 August. Arab foreign ministers and the League secretary-general plan to meet on the eve of the conference and coordinate a stance insisting that the Durban declaration and programme of action include clear language condemning illegal Israeli practices against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
And in a statement made in Geneva, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson suggested that any language in the Durban declaration and programme pertaining to the Middle East should recognise equal rights and the right to self-determination; emphasise negotiated solutions; and acknowledge the accumulated grievances and frustration that result from a prolonged occupation. Robinson also suggested that the declaration and programme of action condemn terrorism, indiscriminate violence, and the excessive and disproportionate use of force, and refer to the wounds of anti-Semitism and the Nazi holocaust.
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