The Sharam El-Sheikh summit of the trio — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak — has declared the Arab determination to hold on to the principles of peace as the only method to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The summit has also made it clear that the Arabs have a united stand with regard to the Palestinian issue belying the rumors of disagreements in the Arab ranks.
The communiqué issued after the summit conveyed the message that the Arabs would support any move aimed at achieving peace in the region. The peace initiative put forward by the crown prince, which has been adopted as the Arab initiative at the Beirut summit, underpinned the same idea. Ironically enough, Israel, which is at the root of all the hostilities and keen on perpetuating the violence in the region, has called for an international conference to discuss the Middle East conflict. Osama Al-Baz, political advisor to President Mubarak, said recently commending on Sharon’s call for the conference that it could possibly be accepted provided its basis was on the Madrid conference UN resolutions on the issue.
The Arab nations are of course ready to welcome an international peace conference to discuss the issue, provided the US and Israel removed suspicions that the proposed conference is another American-Israeli conspiracy against the Arabs.
The Arab suspicions will be dispelled if the following conditions are met:
— The negotiations start with the full recognition of the principles of the Madrid conference and the “land for peace.”
— The peace talks resume from the point where it was left off in the past. No attempt should be made to restart it from square one. This is necessary so that Israel does not drag on negotiations indefinitely to avoid or postpone a final settlement.
— The conference should accept all the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council beginning from resolution No.181 and ending with the resolution No.1405.
— The agenda of the conference should clearly spell out all major points of the dispute such as the establishment of an independent Palestine state and the right of the refugees to return. Removal of all Jewish settlements from the Palestinian territories, return of the East Jerusalem and demarcating the international borders between Israel and Palestine should also be included in the agenda.
— Russia, China and the European Union in addition to representatives of the United Nations should participate and play active role in the conference.
— The objective of the conference should be a final settlement of all Arab-Israeli conflicts. Special care should be taken to keep the US role in the conference just like that of any other participant. This is to ensure that the decisions of the conference are not unfairly tilted in favor of Israel.
— Israel should make a commitment that it will abide by all the decisions taken at the conference. The participants should see that the concerned parties implement all the decisions.
I know that Israel and US will, undoubtedly, reject a peace conference based on the above conditions. There is no question of Arabs agreeing to participate in a conference whose agenda is dictated by US and Israel. They have already given enough concessions to the Zionist state.
