SANAA, 24 June 2004 — Ministers and religious figures from across the Arab and Muslim world spoke out yesterday against terrorism and called for an accurate definition of the phenomenon.

A final statement said the participants at a three-day Islamic conference, “reject terrorism in all its forms,” and stressed that “extremism is foreign to Islam.”

They called for an international conference to be held to define terrorism to avoid confusion with the legitimate right to resist occupation.

Yemen’s Deputy Minister of Islamic Affairs and Guidance, Yahya Najjar, said last month that the conference, which was originally scheduled for May 17, was designed to help formulate an “Islamic vision and clear position on terrorism and ways to face it, as well as formulating a unified message to the Islamic nation on the religious teachings that is forgiving and avoids differences that divide the nation.”

The conference discussed blocking, through proper Islamic education, the spread of extremist ideas that have no links to Islam. The delegates also addressed the challenges of cultural globalization that aims to suppress and weaken the Arab Islamic identity.

Among the 70 participants were Sheikh Mohammad Sayed Tantawi, of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, and ministers of religious affairs from several countries, including Morocco and Syria.

Saleh, Bashir Meet

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday met with Sudan’s Vice President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha in Sanaa to discuss developments in the Sudanese peace talks, the Yemeni news agency Saba reported.

Taha conveyed to Saleh a letter from Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir dealing with these developments.

The report said Taha briefed Saleh about the tentative peace protocols signed by Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Naivasha, Kenya last month.

According to Saba, Taha handed Saleh copies of the six protocols that call for sharing power and oil revenues.

Yemeni leaders welcomed the Sudanese peace deals and underlined Yemen’s solidarity and support in every effort to preserve the African country’s security, stability and unity, reports said.

Early this month, Yemen said it would send a peacekeeping force to Sudan as part of a UN peacekeeping operation once the Khartoum government reaches a final peace deal with southern rebels.