Jordan Times
Sunday, September 23, 2001
Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa due in Jordan today
By Saad G. Hattar
AMMAN — Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa is expected to visit Amman on Sunday for consultations with His Majesty King Abdullah in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, officials said on Saturday.“Mr Musa will discuss with His Majesty, who is current president of the Arab summit, developments in the aftermath of the recent attacks in the US and requests by Sudan and Libya for a meeting of the Arab League foreign ministers on the attacks,” a senior Jordanian official told The Jordan Times.
Sudan said on Thursday that the Arab League put off, at least for now, a call from Khartoum to hold an emergency Arab foreign ministers' meeting on the Sept. 11 bombings in Washington and New York.
Khartoum had requested a meeting before Sunday to discuss the repercussions of the attacks and “to ensure that the Arab issues, particularly the Palestinian cause, are not harmed” by the terrorism crisis.
But “as a result of several contacts by a number of Arab countries, it has been agreed that the meeting be postponed for some time,” one Arab diplomat told The Jordan Times.
Arab diplomats said Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states believe that a meeting of Arab diplomacy chiefs will be useless if it is not preceded by “adequate preparations” that could indicate a minimum joint Arab stand on the issue.
All Arab countries, except for Iraq, have condemned the attacks in the US, but they maintain different stands vis-a-vis Washington's attempts to forge an international coalition for its war against terrorists and countries which harbour them. The campaign includes military, diplomatic, political and financial components.
Foreign ministers in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will meet on Sunday for consultations on the US attacks.
“Many Arabs believe a meeting of the Arab League Foreign Ministers cannot come up with a unified Arab stand, whether in favour or against the US-led coalition,” one diplomat told The Jordan Times. “So why should they meet?” he asked. “Therefore, maybe it is better for all Arabs to take their time in developing a stand as caution is needed”.
Meanwhile, the Arabic-langugage Ad Dustour on Saturday called on Arab nations to adopt a unified stance on the anti-terrorist coalition the United States is building up.
“There is a pressing need for Arab action based on a unified Arab position regarding terrorism, and one that insists on the clear difference between terrorism, and just and legitimate national resistance... against the state terrorism practised by the Hebrew state,” Ad Dustour said in an editorial.
The paper was alluding to the Israeli suppression of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation.
Such a stance should be developed “within the framework of a summit or an immediate meeting of Arab foreign ministers”.
Ad Dustour said Arabs should formulate demands based on their interests and on the conditions being set by Washington, “which has only revealed its objectives, the means that will be employed and the timetable (for the operations) to its closest allies.”
The editorial argued the US campaign is targeting “numerous Arab states and factions under the pretext that they practice terrorism, when the real objective is to settle old accounts, which could create new regional tensions.”
Al Rai, the Arabic-language sister of The Jordan Times, argued Arab countries will be unable to convince their people to join the coalition as long as the “wave of hatred and racism” against Arabs continues in the United States in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.