Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Arabs should deal with
1559 — Muasher
CAIRO (Agencies) — Arab League foreign ministers open a two-day meeting here on
Tuesday focused on Lebanon and its relations with Syria, the situation in
war-wracked Iraq, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On the table for them is a draft resolution
inspired by Lebanon affirming the league's “solidarity” with Beirut “in its
sovereign right to effect its internal choices conforming to its constitutional
principles.”
The resolution follows a US-sponsored move in the UN Security Council resulting
in Resolution 1559 on Sept. 2, targeting Syria and its influence over its tiny
neighbour.
Despite 1559, Lebanon's parliament on Sept. 3 adopted a Syrian-inspired
constitutional amendment to keep pro-Damascus President Emile Lahoud in office
for another three years.
Pushed by the US, the UN demanded respect for Lebanon's sovereignty and
withdrawal of all foreign troops. Syria keeps a force of about 16,000 in
Lebanon, a hangover from a larger force deployed during the 1975-1990 civil war.
The Arab draft, seen by Agence France-Presse and termed “solidarity with the
Lebanese republic,” calls for “support for the free decision of Lebanon to
establish and consolidate friendly relations of coordination and cooperation,
notably with Syria and all the other brotherly Arab states.”
It does not mention the UN Security Council resolution or the amendment to
Lebanon's constitution, although Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said the UN
resolution would be on the league agenda and should be studied carefully.
Muasher told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that Arabs should find a way to deal
with the resolution “regardless if they accept or reject the decision.”
Warning against “selectivity” in implementing international resolutions, Muasher
said rejecting 1559 by Arab countries would “set a serious precedent,” and might
pave the way for discarding other resolutions, including 242, which calls for
Israel's withdrawal from the occupied territories.
Muasher was the first minister to have talks with league secretary general, Amr
Musa, ahead of the meeting.
Egypt's presidential spokesman Magued Abdel Fattah has also warned ministers to
be prudent over the UN stand and the need to look at what might follow from
1559.
He “warned Syria [against a lack of cooperation with the UN] which would be an
open door for another intervention by the Security Council.”
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has to report back to the council in 30 days on
compliance with the resolution, with the threat of economic or other measures
against Damascus implicit.
Earlier this year, Washington imposed its own sanctions on Syria.
Last weekend, US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns
delivered a blunt warning to Syria to stop what Washington terms meddling in
Lebanon's affairs.
“The Americans have the feeling that Syria wants to cooperate with the Security
Council resolution one way or another. That is reassuring,” said Abdel Fattah,
quoted in the Egyptian press on Monday.
The Arab ministers are also expected to reaffirm their solidarity with Sudan,
and oppose threats of foreign intervention or sanctions against Khartoum because
of the Darfur crisis. The US has called the killings in that region genocide and
is seeking another UN resolution against Khartoum whose troops and allied
militia are mainly blamed for the deaths of up to 50,000 people and displacement
of well over a million.
A meeting of the Arab “troika” — Tunisia, Algeria and Bahrain — to discuss Iraq
is expected to precede the league ministers' meeting, as well as the Arab peace
commission on the Middle East conflict.
This commission, set up at the Arab summit in Tunis in May, calls for complete
normalisation of relations between Israel and the Arab countries in return for a
full Israeli withdrawal from Arab territories occupied since 1967.
It will also look at the possibility of a joint meeting with the so-called
Quartet on the Middle East — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and
the United States — on the fringes of the next UN General Assembly.