Annex 10
ME1—LEAGUE—STATEMENT
FINAL STATEMENT
ISSUED BY
ARAB SUMMIT
IN EGYPT
The Arab leaders meeting in Cairo have condemned
Israel for the violence in the occupied territories but did not
heed calls to sever all ties with Israel. They agreed only that
no new ties should be established and that the multilateral talks,
which are already dormant, would not be resumed. They recalled
and reaffirmed a decision made at the 1980 summit in Amman to
sever ties with any state which transferred its embassy to Jerusalem.
They approved the establishment of two funds to provide financial
support for the Palestinians. They also called for an international
criminal tribunal on "Israeli war crimes" and for an
international commission of inquiry into the recent violence in
the region. The following is the text of the final statement issued
by the Arab leaders at the end of their extraordinary summit in
Cairo, read by Arab League Secretary-General Ismat Abd-al-Majid;
as broadcast live by Egyptian satellite TV on 22 October; subheadings
inserted editorially:
In response to an urgent invitation by His Excellency
President Muhammad Mubarak, president of the Arab Republic of
Egypt, in his capacity as president of the extraordinary Arab
summit conference, which was held in Cairo in 1996, their majesties,
excellencies, and highnesses the kings, presidents, and emirs
of the Arab states held an extraordinary conference in Cairo during
the period 23-24 Rajab 1421 AH, corresponding to 21-22 October
2000.
The meeting of this summit comes in extremely
important circumstances in the history of our nation and at a
new phase in the life of its people. It also comes amid serious
developments that have disrupted the peace process between the
Arabs and Israel, after Israel has turned the peace process into
a war against the Palestinian people, using military force to
besiege and isolate them and hold them hostage inside the West
Bank and Gaza Strip.
The summit hails the Palestinian people's intifadah
in the occupied Palestinian territories that clearly expresses
the bitterness of frustration after many years of anticipation
and waiting for the outcome of the peace process, which has not
achieved its results due Israel's intransigence, procrastination,
and retraction in fulfilling its obligations. The Arab leaders
pray to God for the repose of the souls of the Palestinian martyrs
and consider their innocent blood a precious asset for the liberation
of the land, the establishment of the state, and the achievement
of peace.
The Arab leaders praise the response by the
Arab masses from the ocean to the gulf to the intifadah to the
valiant Palestinian people and their unanimous nationalist stand
in denouncing the Israel aggression and the savage acts, which
have been committed by the occupation forces. The Arab masses'
movement has come as an expression of the latent pan-Arab feelings
and the strong solidarity with the Palestinian people's struggle
for their sovereignty, honour, and holy places.
The leaders hold Israel responsible for returning
the region to an atmosphere of tension and the manifestations
of violence due to its practices, aggressions, and blockade of
the Palestinian people in violation of its obligations under the
1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, in its capacity as the occupation
power. This is in addition to the fact that all this constitutes
a blatant violation of the rules of international law and a destruction
of the peace efforts in the region. Moreover, the Israeli rulers
have dealt with the issue of holy Jerusalem with a disregard that
satisfies its desire for irresponsible showmanship and intentional
provocation, which is based on odious racism. They demand that
it put an immediate end to all provocative practices and the policy
of oppression against the Arab citizens.
The Arab leaders affirm that the Al-Aqsa intifadah
has broken out as a result of the continuation and consecration
of the occupation and Israel's violations of the sanctity of Al-Haram
al-Sharif and other Islamic and Christian holy places in the occupied
Palestinian territories. The Arab leaders remember with respect,
and also remind the world of the martyrs, who sacrificed their
lives in defence of their occupied lands and holy places, without
being bothered by the war machine, which Israel has amassed against
the defenceless Palestinian people. They also affirm the Palestinian
people's right to demand fair compensations from Israel for the
human and material losses they have sustained.
AL-AQSA
AND JERUSALEM
FUNDS ESTABLISHED
In response to the suggestion made by the Kingdom
of Saudi Arabia, the Arab leaders decide to set up two funds.
One will be called Al-Aqsa Fund. The sum of 800 million dollars
will be allocated to this fund in order to finance projects that
preserve the Arab and Islamic character of Jerusalem and prevent
its obliteration, and enable the Palestinian people to disengage
from its subservience to the Israeli economy. The second fund
will be called the Jerusalem (Arabic: Al-Quds) Intifadah Fund
with a capital of 200 million dollars. This fund will be devoted
to spending on the families of the Palestinian martyrs of the
intifadah. It will also help care for and teach their children.
They express their great appreciation for the
custodian of the two holy mosques for his decision to have the
kingdom contribute a quarter of the sum to these two funds. The
Arab leaders call on the Arab nation to donate the wages of one
day as a popular Arab contribution in support of the intifadah
and the national Lebanese struggle at this critical stage in the
life of our Arab nation.
CALL FOR
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
TO TRY
"ISRAELI WAR
CRIMINALS"
The Arab leaders demand the formation of a neutral
international investigation commission within the framework of
the United Nations, which would submit to its report to the Security
Council and the Human Rights Commission on the causes and the
responsibility for the serious deterioration of the situation
in the occupied Palestinian territories and the massacres the
Israeli occupation forces have committed against the Palestinian
and Lebanese people as well as other Arab citizens in the occupied
territories. They emphasise in this respect the contents of Security
Council Resolution 1322 on 7 October 2000, the resolution issued
by the extraordinary session of the UN Human Rights Commission
on 19 October 2000, and the UN General Assembly resolution on
20 October 2000. They call on the Security Council to continue
examining the developments of the situation in the occupied Palestinian
and Arab territories in view of the threat they pose to international
peace and security. They also call on the Security Council and
the General Assembly to ensure the necessary protection for the
Palestinian people under Israeli occupation by considering the
formation or presence of an international force for this pupose.
The United Nations assume permanent responsibility for the land
and the Palestinian people until they are able to exercise their
inalienable rights in Palestine under international legitimacy.
The Arab leaders affirm that the Arab states
will, under international law, prosecute those responsible for
the savage practices. They demand the Security Council to form
an international criminal court to try the Israeli war criminals
who perpetrated massacres against the Palestinians and Arabs in
the occupied territories. The court will be similar to the two
courts the council formed to try war criminals in Rwanda and former
Yugoslavia. They will continue to prosecute and bring them to
trial according to the provisions of the basic laws of the International
Criminal Court.
ESTABLISHMENT OF
TIES WITH
ISRAEL, MULTILATERAL
CO-OPERATION
SUSPENDED
The Arab leaders express their great resentment
and condemnation of Israel's action in escalating its agressive
acts and provocative stands at a time when the region was getting
ready for a just and comprehensive peace, especially after the
Arabs have decided since the Madrid Conference that the option
of a just and comprehensive peace opens the way for a final settlement
of a flammable conflict, which has continued for half a century.
The Arab leaders condemn Israel's non-response
to the peace option and failure to proceed towards a just and
comprehensive peace seriously. They warn Israel against continuing
with the practices and the behaviour that threaten the region
and undermine its stability.
The Arab leaders affirm that the nation has
constants, which cannot be touched; rights, which cannot be compromised;
and aims, which they will not cease to achieve in the fulfilment
of the higher Arab interests.
The Arab leaders also affirm that peace is based
on the two concepts of comprehensiveness and justice, being two
binding conditions for its acceptance and continuity. They affirm
that this Arab inclination calls for a similar commitment by Israel,
which must meet this inclination with a clear stand that is based
on compliance with the international legitimacy according to Security
Council Resolutions 242 and 338, UN General Assembly Resolution
194 concnering the Palestinian refugees' right to repatriation
and compensation, all relevant UN resolutions, and the constants
and principles of the peace process, foremost being the land-for-peace
principle.
The Arab leaders affirm that just, comprehensive
peace will not be achieved except with the return of holy Jerusalem
to full Palestinian sovereignty; the acknowledgement of the Palestinian
people's legitimate rights, including their right to establish
their independent state with holy Jerusalem as its capital, being
a Palestinian land that was occupied in 1967 and also in view
of its spiritual and religious status; the restoration of all
the occupied Arab territories, including full Israeli withdrawal
from the West Bank, Gaza, and the occupied Syrian Golan to the
4 June 1967 line, and completing withdrawal from southern Lebanon
to the internationally recognized borders, including Shab'a farms;
the release of Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons in implementation
of the relevant UN resolutions; and the removal of Israeli settlements
under Security Council Resolution 465 for 1989.
Within this framework, the Arab leaders reaffirm
their support for the brethren in Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine
and stress their adherence to their legitimate rights and the
restoration of their occupied territories. They also affirm their
rejection of any attempts to impose an unjust and unbalanced peace
on the basis of Israeli claims and at the expense of Arab rights
and interests.
The Arab leaders affirm, in the light of the
setback in the peace process, their commitment to firmly confront
all Israeli attempts to penetrate the Arab world under any name
and suspend establishment of any relations with Israel. They hold
Israel responsible for the steps and decisions that may be taken
in this respect concerning relations with Israel by the Arab states,
including the cancellation of these relations that may be necessitated
by the suspension of the peace process, the recent serious developments,
and their repercussions in the Arab and Islamic spheres until
just and comprehensive peace is achieved.
While stressing that the suspension of the peace
process on the different bilateral tracks has led to the suspension
of the multilateral talks, the Arab leaders affirm that tackling
the issues of regional co-operation cannot take place without
real progress towards just, comprehensive peace in the region.
The suspension of the peace process due to Israel's policy and
provocative practices makes the talk about a common future in
the region non-objective. The Arab states decided not to resume
any official or non official activities within the framework of
the multilateral talks and suspend all regional economic co-operation
steps and activities with Israel within this framework not participate
in any of them, and link their resumption to the attainment of
tangible achievement in the direction of attaining a just and
comprehensive peace on all the tracks of the peace process.
DECISION TO
SEVER TIES
WITH STATES
MOVING EMBASSIES
TO JERUSALEM
REAFFIRMED
The Arab leaders praised the Jerusalem Committee
decisions, especially the statement it issued at the end of its
recent session in Agadir, Morocco, affirming its support for the
Palestinian state's stand, which is based on adhering to the sovereignty
on East Jerusalem, including Al-Haram al-Sharif and all Islamic
and Christian holy places, which are part of the occupied Palestinian
territories, and also with Holy Jerusalem as the capital of the
independent Palestinian state. The Arab leaders recall Security
Council Resolution 478 of 1980, which calls on world nations not
to transfer their embassies to Jerusalem and the resolution by
the 11th Arab summit conference, which was held in Amman in 1980,
which affirms the severance of all relations with countries that
transfer their embassies to Jerusalem or recognise it as the capital
of Israel.
The Arab leaders affirm that the achievement
of lasting peace and security in the region makes it incumbent
on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and subject
all its nuclear establishments to international inspection and
control. They affirm in this respect the extreme importance of
clearing the Middle East region of nuclear weapons and all weapons
of mass destruction, considering this aim a necessary and binding
condition for establishing any future security arrangements in
the region.
Arab leaders to meet periodically to co-ordinate
joint action; Qatar to finance inquiry commission.
The Arab leaders express the conviction that
the rapid international changes call for the need to reactivate
joint action, bolster and modernize the Arab League, and develop
its institutions in order to strengthen its future pan-Arab role.
In this respect, the Arab leaders, who are meeting
in this delicate phase, agree to adopt the mechanism on holding
regular meetings of the Arab summit. The Arab League Council approved
this mechanism during its recent 114th session. The preparatory
Arab foreign ministers meeting also approved the formula for this
summit. And acting on this formula, which makes the presidency
of the regular Arab summit alphabetical, the kings and presidents
decided to convene the Arab League Council at the summit level
in its 13th ordinary session in Amman in March 2001 under the
chairmanship of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The Arab leaders express the confidence that
the regular convocation of the Arab summit would help bolster
joint Arab action in all fields, especially the economic field,
which has become more urgent than at any time in the light of
the international and regional changes that make Arab economic
integration an urgent necessity, in view of the human, natural,
and strategic resources which the Arab states possess and which
would help achieve stability in the regional and international
economy as well as growth rates and prosperity for their peoples.
At the conclusion of their summit, the Arab
leaders praise the spirit of complete solidarity that prevailed
in the summit and the constructive discussions, in which all the
brotherly delegations had taken part in a manner that reflects
the deep feeling among everyone—leaders, governments, and
peoples—about the gravity of the phase and the importance
of developing a unified Arab stand that can firmly confront all
Israeli threats in the endeavour to put the peace process back
on the right track of just, comprehensive peace in the region.
The Arab leaders praise the decision by His
Highness Shaykh Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani, emir of the State
of Qatar, to assume the expenses of the investigation committee
into the human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories,
which is to be established in accordance with Resolution dated
19 October 2000 during the fifth special session of the Human
Rights Committee, to enable it to achieve its objectives.
The Arab leaders affirmed their intention to
continue devoting Arab energies to the service of their nation's
causes and all their capabilities to the liberation of the occupied
Arab territories, and to back the Palestinian people's struggle
for the restoration of their land, the establishment of their
state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital, and
the preservation of Islamic and Christian holy places in Palestine.
The Arab leaders agreed to continue their consultations to tackle
with the developments facing the Arab nation.
The Arab leaders expressed their profound thanks
and appreciation to His Excellency President Muhammad Husni Mubarak,
president of the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the brotherly Egyptian
people for the kind hospitality and warm reception. They also
express their full appreciation for the way the conference was
organized and prepared and express their best wishes to His Excellency
President Muhammad Husni Mubarak and the brotherly Egyptian people,
wishing them continued progress and prosperity.
Source:
Egyptian Satellite Channel, Cairo, in Arabic
0924 gmt 22 October 2000, BBC Monday ME1 MEPo1 sg.
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