DUBAI, 26 July 2005 — Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said yesterday that “intense efforts” were under way to convene an “urgent” summit to discuss Israel’s planned pullout from Gaza Strip, due to start on Aug. 17.
Moussa said he expected the summit to be hosted by Egypt, still reeling from the heavy blow dealt to its vital tourism industry by deadly triple bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
“There are intense efforts to hold an urgent summit hosted by Egypt,” Moussa said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television from New York. “There are now ongoing contacts, and I will return quickly to Cairo, after two days ... after I complete my commitments here, in order to prepare for this summit,” he said.
“The summit could be held within days, or within a week or two.”
Moussa said that despite Israel’s plans to end its nearly four-decade occupation of Gaza, he saw no possibility of an Arab-Israeli summit without a “return to the principles of the peace process”.
“As an Arab official and citizen, I do not understand how an Arab-Israeli summit or conference could be held after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as if this pullout from Gaza was an end in itself and thus a reward to Israel.
“There cannot be a peace conference when settlements are being built (in the West Bank) at the same time that the Arabs are sitting with the Israelis.
“There should be a commitment to stop the settlements, that the wall is a security measure that will be removed, and that Jerusalem and the refugees are all issues subject to negotiations, and that the borders are the 1948 (as said) borders,” he said.
“In short, there should be a return to the principles of the peace process, and then it will be important to hold a summit” with Israel.
Israel’s Gaza pullout was originally conceived of as an unilateral move intended to deflect international pressure for a broader withdrawal from all the occupied territories, although there have been efforts in recent months to coordinate it with the Palestinians.
The Palestinians want a return to the internationally drafted peace road map which aimed at the establishment of their promised state this year but has made little progress since its 2003 launch.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Moussa said yesterday, the Arab League, Egypt and other Arab states are trying to arrange a summit in Egypt within about 2 weeks to discuss Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“The agenda would be the general situation in the region with the focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict and the situation in Iraq,” he added.
Algeria, current chairman of Arab League meetings after a regular summit in Algiers in March, is also playing a prominent part in the preparations, he said.
