CAIRO, 7 September 2006 — The Arab League yesterday called on the United Nations Security Council to find a new mechanism to relaunch the Middle East peace process, during a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo. Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa said the League would call on the Security Council “to review the peace process ... and to find a new and effective mechanism to activate it, based on Security Council decisions and the Arab peace initiative.” The 2002 Arab initiative proposed a full normalization of relations with Israel in the exchange for the return of all land occupied by the Jewish state in 1967.
The UAE minister of state for foreign affairs and president of the last session Mohammed Hussain Al-Shaali also called for a timeframe for the relaunch of the peace process.
“We call on the Security Council to relaunch the peace process ... and to define a precise and effective mechanism in order to quickly revive the negotiations and to define a timeframe and to secure international guarantees (for the process),” he told the opening session before heading into closed meetings.
An Arab diplomat attending the talks told AFP that the League’s peace committee had agreed on a unanimous position which it would put to the Security Council, without giving further details.
Nineteen Arab foreign ministers were attending yesterday’s meeting which is taking place at the League’s headquarters in Cairo, including Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem who was absent from the last meeting on Aug. 20.
During an emergency session in Cairo on July 15, the Arab League declared the peace process “dead,” three days after the launch of Israel’s offensive in Lebanon following a first offensive by the Jewish state in the Gaza Strip. “The only way to revive the peace process is to take it back to the Security Council,” Arab League chief Amr Moussa said at the July meeting.
The talks are also expected to focus on the situation in Lebanon following the adoption of UN Resolution 1701 that went into force on Aug. 14, putting an end to a month-long war between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. More than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, mainly civilians, as well as 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, in the 34-day conflict.
Among other things, the resolution calls for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon to reinforce the already existing United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). On Monday, Qatar pledged up to 300 troops for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon making the gas-rich emirate the first Arab state to contribute.
Asked whether Qatar’s decision would encourage other Arab countries to contribute to the UN force, Moussa said it was up to each country to decide individually.
“Participation in these forces is an issue open to Arab and Islamic countries and others, but participating will be the decision of each country individually and will not be a joint decision of the Arab League,” Moussa told reporters at a joint press conference with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who was on a whirlwind tour of the Middle East.
