Khartoum: Arab leaders meeting in Sudan yesterday promoted a land-for-peace offer to Israel, even as Israelis voted in polls that could give their next government a mandate to impose permanent borders with the Palestinians.
Participants at the annual Arab summit demanded the opposite approach a return to Middle East peace talks sponsored by international mediators and criticised threats to cut aid to the Palestinian National Authority when Hamas take office.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi told reporters there was no Arab consensus because some Arab states were allied with "enemies".
Arab foreign ministers meeting at the weekend prepared a summit agreement that would maintain financial assistance to the Palestinian National Authority at $55 million (about Dh202 million) a month and recommend that Arab states waive Iraqi debt worth billions of dollars. In the formal opening session, at a newly built conference hall on the banks of the White Nile, the Arab leaders asked the world to help revive Middle East peace talks and respect the result of Palestinian elections.
"I call on the ... Quartet (of international mediators) to double its efforts so that Israel responds to repeated Arab calls for peace, especially the Beirut resolutions," said Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir.
At a summit in the Lebanese capital in 2002, all Arab states offered Israel peace in return for withdrawal to the borders as they stood on the eve of the Middle East war of 1967.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas asked for more financial aid "to reinforce the steadfastness of our people".
Opening
A diluted list of the 'three nos'
At an earlier summit in Khartoum in 1967, Arab leaders said no to recognition, no to negotiations and no to peace with Israel.
Almost 40 years later, Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir opened an Arab summit in the same city with a much diluted list of three nos, directed at Israel and the West.
"We say 'No to denial by anyone of the democratic choice of the people of Palestine', we say 'No to punishment of the Palestinian people for exercising their right to choose who rules them', we say 'No to submission or succumbing to Israel's flouting of every promise it has made to the world'," he said.
Other issues
-- Syria: Summit stressed the rejection of US sanctions against Syria and expressed concern over the Syria accountability law, passed by the US Congress last year.
-- Lebanon: The meeting supported Lebanon's sovereign right to "exercise its political options within its constitutional institutions" and its ongoing national dialogue. It stressed the need to unravel the truth behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
UAE islands: The leaders called on Iran to withdraw from the UAE's three occupied islands for the sake of "brotherly" relations between Iran and Arab countries.
WMD: The summit called for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. It also urged the international community to exert pressure on Israel to join the non-proliferation treaty and put its installations under international inspection.
Reforms and human rights: The summit praised Arab states' movement towards introducing democratic reforms and pledged to fight gender inequality.
