GALLANT ARAFAT: Islamic conference voices solidarity with Palestinians

Union Leader ^ | 6/28/02 | HAMZA HENDAWI, AP

[kattracks]

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Representatives of 57 Muslim nations pledged support for Palestinians in a resolution yesterday that made no mention of President Bush’s call for Palestinians to elect a new leadership.

The resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, was adopted at the end of a three-day meeting of foreign ministers and senior officials of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The omission of any reference to Bush’s speech this week was designed to give Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, time to get further information from Washington, said Palestinian chief delegate Farouk Kaddoumi.

Secretary of State Colin Powell talked by phone Thursday with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, on implementing Bush’s proposal for a Palestinian state within three years. Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher also talked with Powell, according to Jordan’s news agency.

Bush has made reform of the Palestinian Authority a precondition to U.S. support for establishing a state.

In Khartoum, the Islamic conference did present a tacit rebuff of Bush’s call for Arafat to go, issuing a separate declaration that said Muslims stood by the “Palestinian people under the leadership of the gallant President Yasser Arafat.”

“If the United States really champions democracy and human rights, then how come it’s asking to interfere in the choice of leadership by a people?” Kaddoumi told reporters.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said that after listening to Bush’s speech on Monday, the OIC agreed not to consider it “as a new initiative, when we already have an Arab initiative that we have already adopted.”

In the resolution, the OIC ministers stated support for a Saudi peace plan adopted by Arab leaders in March, and also accused Israel’s army of committing “war crimes, crimes against humanity and massacres.”

First floated in February by Crown Prince Abdullah, the Saudi plan promises Israel normal relations with all Arab countries in return for its withdrawal from Arab lands it occupied in the 1967 Mideast war. It also calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.

The OIC, headquartered in the Saudi Arabian city of Jiddah, was founded more than 30 years ago. It’s the world’s only pan-Islamic organization, in theory representing the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims, but earning a reputation for being no more than a talking forum.

A political committee set up by the foreign ministers issued resolutions on nearly 40 issues, ranging from conditions of Muslim minorities across the world to civil strife in African nations.

The ministers said they “totally reject attempts to link Islam to terrorism,” and repeated Muslim demands for a conference to reach a universal definition of terrorism — a doubtful prospect since the United States opposes such a forum.

Addressing the closing session, Ismail said that for the world to be a safer place, it is international justice that “will uproot terrorists, and not a war machine no matter how advanced it is” — a reference to the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.

The ministers also called on Iraq to “show its peaceful intentions” toward Kuwait, and on the U.N. Security Council to lift sanctions against Libya.