Posted on 09/14/2004 1:50:32 PM PDT by yonif
CAIRO - Arab foreign ministers agreed on Tuesday to avoid a position on United Nations intervention in the Syrian-Lebanese relationship after Syria and Jordan disagreed on the right approach.
An Arab League resolution, approved but subject to amendment, does not mention a UN Security Council resolution demanding Syria withdraw its troops from Lebanon and end interference in the affairs of its neighbor, diplomats said.
An Arab diplomat said the UN resolution posed an impossible choice for the ministers, who are in Cairo for a regular twice-yearly meeting of the Arab League council of ministers.
They cannot endorse the resolution, because they oppose U.S. and French interference in inter-Arab affairs, but they cannot reject it because their case in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute rests on other UN Security Council resolutions, he said.
The Arab League resolution says only that the ministers "decided to support Lebanon in its sovereign right to practice its internal political choices ... and to support its free decision to establish and strengthen fraternal relations, coordination and cooperation, especially with Syria."
The formula was approved on Monday at the level of ambassadors but disagreement emerged when the ministers met in closed session on Tuesday morning, league sources said.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan al-Muasher said that Syria should comply with the UN resolution and the Arab League could not challenge decisions taken by the Security Council, the sources said. Gulf states supported the Jordanian position.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Shara said this position meant submission to American pressure. The United States and France were the driving forces behind the resolution.
The sources quoted Shara as saying the resolution was a "flagrant threat to Syria and official intervention in the internal affairs of Lebanon and relations between states."
"To stay silent about it would be to give America the right to intervene in every matter that concerns the Arabs," one source quoted him as saying.
The aim of the resolution was to serve Israeli interests and to put pressure on Syria to cooperate with the occupation of Iraq, "and that will never happen", Shara added.
Shara said the Arabs were the only regional grouping that does comply with UN resolutions while Israel ignored resolutions dating back to the 1960s.
An Arab League official played down the disagreement and said that no one had proposed amending the agreed text.
In Amman on Monday, Jordanian government spokeswoman Asma Khader said Jordan stood by fellow Arabs but could not stand against "international legitimacy". She was quoted by the official Egyptian news agency MENA.
On Monday the Saudi Press Agency quoted Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah as saying the Gulf Cooperation Council "supports the latest Security Council resolution that demands withdrawal of all forces from Lebanon."
The Gulf Cooperation Council includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
"Arab League FMs avoid UN resolution on Lebanon"
Hell, the Arab league are still avoiding the question as to, are they Arabs or Africans?
The Arab league can be likened to the chummy US Senate old boys (& girls) club, they see no evil from their own. Only real difference, they sit around, gossip, drink cinnamon tea and eat sweets, before they go back home to their little boy toy slaves.
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