Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Arab foreign ministers locked in difficult discussions about reform
CAIRO (AFP) — Arab foreign ministers meeting for a third day here Monday were locked in difficult discussions about reform of the Arab League ahead of an annual summit to be held in Tunis from May 22-23, officials said.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa confirmed
the dates for the summit on Sunday, indicating that consensus had been reached
on reform issues after weeks of wrangling which threatened to scupper the
meeting.
Officials close to the talks said the ministers, who have already discussed
draft resolutions on Iraq and the Palestinian conflict, were hammering out a
joint document expressing common values for reform of the league itself.
They had approved in principle the creation of an Arab parliament, security and
cultural councils, a court of justice and an Arab investment bank, officials
said.
Commissions had been tasked with working out the details and would report their
findings at a summit in Algiers next year.
Discussions were also under way on changes to the league's voting proceedures
amid complaints that the consensus approach was paralysing decision making.
Thought was being given to carrying degrees of majority voting depending on the
magnitude of the issue in question.
Tunisia had postponed the annual summit in March after saying Arab countries had
rejected essential proposals for democratic reform and the empowerment of women.
The move angered several Arab capitals, including Cairo, which charged that
Tunisia was in no position to lecture on democracy.
In earlier discussions, the ministers hammered out a draft resolution condemning
Israel for its assassinations of Palestinian militant leaders, according to
texts obtained by AFP.
The Arab countries would also declare their "readiness to participate in every
effort in the struggle against terrorism."
But there was silence over the issue of the 2005 date for the creation of a
Palestinian state, a target set in the internationally-backed roadmap for peace
but now deemed unrealistic by US President George W. Bush.
Musa said, however, that Washington's reluctance to back the deadline was a
"very serious matter" and an "unacceptable way to proceed with the peace
process."
The roadmap has the support of the so-called Quartet — the European Union,
Russia, the United Nations and the United States — but it has been thrown into
doubt by a unilateral Israeli proposal to pull out of the Gaza Strip.
Musa stressed that a plan agreed at the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 was a
"strategic Arab position" which could not be changed.
This initiative envisaged the establishment of normal relations between the Arab
states and Israel in exchange for the withdrawal of the Jewish state from all
Arab territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem.
The foreign ministers also discussed a resolution condemning the abuse of Iraqi
prisoners in US-run jails, while at the same time setting up a troika of
Tunisia, Bahrain and Algeria to monitor progress towards the handover of
sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government on June 30.
Musa avoided the issue of whether Arab countries would send troops to Iraq if an
international security force is mandated under a new UN resolution. "The
question has not been asked," he said.
Sources said, however, that the issue, which has divided the Arab countries,
would be tackled at a higher level when the leaders meet in Tunis later this
month.