(AP) — Arab leaders held their annual summit Wednesday, poised to
endorse key Palestinian positions in the conflict with Israel — a signal
to US President Donald Trump that a deal on Palestinian statehood must
precede any Israeli-Arab normalization. The Arab summit was to adopt a series of
resolutions, several dealing with the Palestinian issue. The statements,
subject to last-minute change, were previously endorsed by Arab foreign
ministers. The draft resolutions condemn Israeli
policies, including settlement construction, that are “aimed at
eliminating the two-state solution and replacing it with apartheid.” They also warned against moving diplomatic
missions to contested Jerusalem, whose eastern sector is sought by the
Palestinians as a capital. Trump has said he would move the US Embassy
in Israel to Jerusalem, but relocation no longer appears imminent. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel
Nahshon said the summit’s focus on the Palestinians is a ploy to divert
from the real issues. “We are the ultimate fig leaf for all Arab abuses
and failures,” he wrote in a Twitter post. The Palestinian quest for independence also
served as a showcase for Arab unity in a fractured region, where leaders
find themselves on opposite sides of long-running conflicts,
particularly Syria’s six-year-old civil war. The 21 kings, presidents and top officials gathered on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea. Syrian President Bashar Assad was absent; he
hasn’t been invited since Syria’s suspension from the 22-member Arab
League following his crackdown on a 2011 uprising that quickly turned
into a brutal civil war. The gathering came ahead of White House
meetings in coming weeks between Trump and three Arab leaders — Jordan’s
King Abdullah II, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
not formally abandoned his stated support for the two-state solution,
but has stopped mentioning it in his speeches since Trump was elected.
Instead, he has made vague statements about seeking a region-wide
agreement. Netanyahu frequently boasts of strong behind-the-scenes alliances with unidentified Arab countries. In a speech this week to AIPAC, the pro-Israel
American lobby group, Netanyahu once again alluded to a region-wide
approach, saying that “common dangers faced by Israel and many of our
Arab neighbors now offer a rare opportunity to build bridges toward a
better future.”
by Voice of America CAIRO — The leaders of 21 Arab states examined the conflicts and crises
facing their countries and the region as the 28th Arab League summit
officially got underway Wednesday in the Jordanian capital Amman. Jordan’s King Abdullah II was applauded after he delivered the
keynote address to fellow Arab heads of state at the 28th Arab League
summit in Amman. He underscored the major crises and conflicts plaguing the Arab
world, including terrorism, the Palestinian issue, and the bloody
conflicts in Syria, Libya, Iraq and Yemen. He says that terrorism represents, above all, a threat to the Muslim
world and that [Arab leaders] must join efforts with others to resolve
the problem. King Abdullah urged everyone to work to help alleviate the refugee crisis undermining the Arab world.
by the daily star: The
Chinese believe it is better to light a candle than to curse the dark,
and so does President Michel Aoun, who in his Arab League summit speech
lit a flame in the hope it would catch on. The speech showed
Lebanon no longer has any hang-ups about its identity, sovereignty,
independence and relationships – thanks to Prime Minister Saad Hariri
and Aoun’s efforts to overcome controversial issues with a new concept
of cooperative and transparent governance. It also proved
animosity is today directed only at the culprit who deserves it the most
– Israel – and reaffirmed Aoun and Lebanon’s unwavering solidarity with
the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation and support for the
right of return for those elsewhere. Aoun took the opportunity, too, to touch upon the many wars raging in the region. And
so Lebanon’s president might, because after the experience of the
15-year Civil War, the country is well placed to offer some clues as to
how the Arab world may overcome this dark chapter. The overriding
message of Aoun’s somber and rational speech was that only dialogue can
fix this region’s ills, and it was only this route that ended the
bloodshed in Lebanon. Aoun’s advice was not a propaganda ploy but a
conviction born of bitter experience, and a wish to end the “storm that
has hit our region” and “hit all our countries. Lebanon’s
current unity shows the power of a conciliatory atmosphere. One can only
hope Aoun’s words are heeded, and dialogue unites the region as the
Arab League’s founders first envisaged.
A section of twenty one kings, presidents and top
officials from the Arab League summit pose for a group photo, at a
gathering near the Dead Sea in Jordan, March 29, 2017.
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit stressed that one
of every two refugees in the world is an Arab, and he deplored the
inability of Arab leaders to put an end to the conflicts besetting the
region. He says the most important issues and conflicts facing the Arab world
unfortunately are not matters in the leaders’ hands, such as Syria and
Libya, and they are forced to sit back and watch. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who was a guest of the
summit, deplored the refugee crisis that has created “anguish,”
condemning “waves of populism” across the globe, causing “developed
countries to close their borders” to refugees. He added that
disagreements among Arab leaders make resolving conflicts more
difficult. “Divisions in the Arab world have opened the door to foreign
intervention and manipulation, breeding instability, sectarian strife,
and terrorism,” he said.
European Union Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini was also a
guest of the summit, telling Arab leaders they must work together. “Our common region is going through years of suffering and peace, and
reconciliation can only come through a truly collective and cooperative
approach,” she said. Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi said he believes the only way to tackle terrorism is to attack its root causes He says that in addition to a military component, terrorism also must
be attacked on social, cultural, economic, and religious levels, with
the help of religious institutions. The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Ben Hamad al-Thani, urged pressure on
the international community to put an end to Israeli settlements in the
West Bank. Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas called on Israel, in his
words, to “put an end to its occupation” of Palestinian territories
