Arab summit ends with fierce words, little else

“We are awaiting a series of decisions by the Arab summit that will close today in Cairo. And I have no doubt that, among other things, a decision about the imposition of a time-out will be strongly linked to the character of the decisions the Arab summit takes,” Danny Yatom, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, told Israel’s Army Radio.

The final summit communique, read by Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid, called for a UN War Crimes Tribunal to try Israelis for the “massacres”.

It also called for the creation of two Arab funds worth $1 billion. The Jerusalem Intifada Fund would raise $200 million for the families of Palestinians killed or wounded. The other, to be known as Al-Aqsa Fund, would provide $800 million to protect the “Arab and Islamic character” of East Jerusalem.

The clashes were ignited by the September 28 visit of Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a compound in Jerusalem’s Old City that contains Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine. Jews revere the compound as the Temple Mount.

The bloodshed has spurred some Arab leaders, and thousands of demonstrators, to demand a break in ties with Israel.

But the summit statement said only that Arabs would halt further normalisation with Israel and stay away from multilateral talks on regional economic cooperation.

In apparent deference to Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab states to sign peace treaties with Israel, the communique left it upto individual countries to decide on existing ties.

“Arab leaders affirm that in view of the setback in the peace process, they will confront firmly Israeli efforts to infiltrate the Arab world under whatever name and to stop forging any ties with Israel," the draft communique says.

“They hold Israel responsible for the steps and decisions taken by Arab countries, which are dictated by the stoppage of the peace process, including cancellation of relations.”

It also reaffirmed the Arabs’ commitment to a just, lasting and comprehensive peace with Israel and called on the Jewish state to demonstrate a similar commitment.

The communique said there could be no peace unless Israel ceded all land occupied in a 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Israel has vowed to keep the whole city as its capital.

The proposed measures are unlikely to frighten Israel as they do not commit countries such as Egypt and Jordan to tear up their 1979 and 1994 peace treaties with the Jewish state.

Only a handful of other Arab states established low-level ties with Israel after a 1993 Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Oman and Qatar set up trade ties with Israel in 1994 but both states froze steps towards normalisation, three years later. Last week, Oman closed its bureau in Tel Aviv and shut Israel’s office in Muscat to protest against the violence.

Mauritania established full diplomatic relations with Israel, last year. Morocco and Tunisia set up low-level diplomatic ties six years ago, but both downgraded them in the past two weeks.

Libya, represented only by an ambassador, quit Saturday’s meeting because the Arabs had failed to cut ties with Israel.

Delegates said that in a closed session, moderate Arab leaders had convinced hardline states to agree to the communique by saying Arabs could wait until their next summit, scheduled to be held in Jordan in March, to reassess the situation.

Summit host, Egypt, has defended the proposed communique, saying it was aimed at calming the rage in West Asia.

“This summit and this final statement represents the wise and moderate position,” a senior Egyptian official said. “It avoids confrontations but at the same time shows a desire for peace and stability in the region. It is a difficult mission.”

Palestinian senior negotiator Nabil Shaath, speaking to reporters after Saturday’s closed session, said he was pleased at the summit proposals but added, “We still want more.”

Delegates said Gulf countries had rejected a Palestinian demand to employ 130,000 Palestinians, saying their migration from the West Bank and Gaza would play into Israel’s hands.

Arab leaders warned countries against transferring their embassies to Jerusalem or recognising it as the capital of Israel. US President Bill Clinton said in September he would review the possibility of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, addressing the summit on Saturday, promised that his people would maintain the struggle against Israel, but said their choice remained peace.

A senior Palestinian official told Reuters in Ramallah that Arafat would order his police to prevent Palestinians using firearms against Israeli troops as soon as the summit ends.