MARRAKECH, 14 May 2006 — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI called on the quartet of Middle East negotiators to renew efforts for peace in the region, in a joint declaration released yesterday.
The statement, issued at the close of a three-day visit by Mubarak, said the leaders “call on the international community and the quartet to work to implement resolutions of international legality in order to bring peace to the Middle East, following the Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories.”
Mubarak and Mohammed also called for an “Arab peace initiative” for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and backed the road map for peace laid out by the quartet, which comprises the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States. They also underlined their “rejection of unilateral solutions,” an apparent reference to Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and its planned retreat from most of the West Bank.
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Palestinians and 150 Israeli peace activists clashed with Israeli soldiers in Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, during a rally yesterday against the Israeli separation wall.
Soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators after some protesters threw rocks at them, an AFP photographer witnessed. It was the second straight day of violent clashes over construction of the wall.
On Friday, 10 people were injured in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah. An Australian activist was hospitalized after being shot in the head with a rubber bullet and an AFP photographer was shot in the hand. Hundreds of foreign peace activists and Palestinians demonstrate at least once a week against the separation wall.
