Posted on 05/08/2004 2:22:31 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -
Under extraordinary secrecy - even paper was banned to avoid leaks - Arab foreign ministers hoping to revive a summit of their leaders tried Saturday to find common ground on Israel, Iraq and U.S.-proposed reforms.
But Jordan's foreign minister went public, holding a news conference and urging Arab nations to do more to advance the peace process with Israel, telling them not to wait for Israeli concessions before drafting some of their own.
The 22-member Arab League summit, scheduled to be held in Tunisia in March, was postponed at the last minute because of disagreements among ministers on Israel and the political reforms.
In an effort to present a unified Arab voice, organizers imposed unusual secrecy on the ministers' gathering.
Visual aids were projected onto a screen, not handed out on paper, to avoid copies making their way into public hands. Ministers held most of their meetings without aides to reduce the possibility of leaks and did not speak to reporters as they entered the meeting.
An Arab league spokesman said the secrecy was "out of respect for the Arab leaders" so their summit does not get upstaged by their own ministers.
But some details of the meeting emerged.
Delegates said on condition of anonymity that Saturday's discussions did not cover a new date for the summit and U.S.-proposed reforms in the Arab world.
Delegates said they spent much time debating a letter from President Bush to Jordan's King Abdullah II.
In the letter, Bush did not give guarantees for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that Arabs had sought, but he appeared to back away from assurances he gave to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon last month.
Some delegates said the letter did not go far enough, according to people who attended the meeting, but Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher indicated the consensus was that the letter did more good than harm.
He also urged Arab nations to do more to advance the peace process.
"Since the United States is saying in a written letter that the issues of final status are the responsibility of the two parties alone, let's build on this stance, benefit from it, and use it to move the peace process," he said.
Arabs have asked for guarantees from the United States on two issues: that an eventual Palestinian state would encompass the West Bank, and that Palestinian refugees who fled in 1948 from land that now lies in Israel be allowed to return.
In the letter, Bush said those are issues to be discussed in final negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Last month, he angered Arab nations by telling Sharon he supports Israel's retention of some West Bank settlements and opposes resettlement of the refugees.
Bush appeared to be backing off the assurances to Sharon in an effort to reach out to the Arab world in the wake of the prisoner-abuse scandal in Iraq.
Muasher appealed for initiative on the Arab side.
"In the end, the one that is going to move the peace process is the Arab side," he said.
Since the Tunisia meeting collapsed in March, the situation in the Middle East has become even more complicated, with Bush's letter of guarantees to Sharon, an upsurge in violence in Iraq, a scandal over abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops, an Israeli assassination of a Hamas leader and terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia.
The ministers also discussed a Yemeni initiative, a draft copy of which was seen by The Associated Press, that calls for U.S.-led forces in Iraq to be replaced by a multinational force under U.N. oversight. It does not commit Arab troops to Iraq.
Arab League official Hisham Youssef indicated delegates were not ruling out committing Arab forces to Iraq, but they needed to clarify command structures before that happened.
The initiative also seeks an Iraqi meeting, held under U.N. and Arab League auspices, on writing an Iraqi constitution and laying out the framework of a new Iraqi government. U.N. officials have proposed a similar idea.
Delegates said the Iraqi delegation was not willing to discuss the new ideas.
The Yemeni initiative repeats Arab calls for a U.N. Security Council resolution to commit Israel to end violence, but it also seeks a Palestinian commitment to "end all forms of armed resistance" - which would be a dramatic change of course for Arab nations.
Such a call is unlikely to survive into any final Arab document.
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