SANAA, 26 March 2004 — Yemen will present to the Arab summit in Tunis next week its own “road map” for peace in the Middle East, including elections in Iraq and an international force to protect Palestinians, a government newspaper reported.
The Sept. 26 daily claimed the initiative, which also calls for the United Nations, the Arab League and the US-led coalition to set up a committee on Iraq, had been “welcomed” in the United States, France and other European countries.
The committee, on which the interim Iraqi government would have a seat, would be charged with bringing security to Iraq via international forces under UN command. US-led occupation forces would withdraw from the cities, the Defense Ministry’s paper said.
A representative Iraqi sub-committee would draw up a constitution and electoral code and elections would be held in a year. Iraqi military forces would be set up in two years.
Yemen is suggesting to add the Arab League to the international quartet of the European Union, Russia, United Nations and United States that is trying to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through its own road map.
Besides a protection force, Yemen will propose to seek a non-violence pledge from Israel and the Palestinians and the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 war.
Under the plan, Palestinian factions would unite, with Arab backing, and Israel would withdraw from occupied land in Syria and Lebanon under a calendar to be worked out in an Arab-Israeli agreement guaranteeing the rights of both parties.
Yemen’s initiative also covers the dismantling of arms of mass destruction in the Middle East.
A draft of the final declaration for the two-day Tunis summit, due to begin on Monday, calls for a re-launch of an Arab land-for-peace plan that won support at the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut .
It also underlines the importance of Iraq’s territorial integrity and independence and the right of Iraqis to decide their own future.
