ARAB AFFAIRS - March 27 - Arab League Summit In Beirut.

In opening remarks at the 2-day Arab League summit meeting in Beirut, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz says Arab states are ready to offer "normal relations and the security of Israel" in return to the Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 war. He says a Palestinian state must be created with Jerusalem as its capital and hundreds of thousands of refugees must be allowed to return. He adds: "I tell the Israeli people that if their government gives up the policy of force and suppression and accepts genuine peace, we will not hesitate in accepting the Israeli people's right to live in security with the rest of the people in the region. Notwithstanding military superiority, the Israeli people are as far as ever from peace. Peace will come out of hearts and minds, not guns". (But despite the importance of the summit meeting, key players are missing. Egyptian Pres. Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah do not attend to protest Israel's refusal to let Arafat participate. Mubarak told Egyptian television that he did not feel comfortable discussing peace proposals when Arafat was being treated like a "school student" by the Israelis. He was also upset at the inability of US officials to persuade Israel to let Arafat travel to and return from Beirut. Several other Arab states, including Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, are represented only by senior officials). Arafat was supposed to address delegates via a live satellite link, but the plan was cancelled by Lebanese Pres. Emile Lahoud, who said later he was concerned that staging a live broadcast from Ramallah would "run the risk of Israel disrupting the signal and interfering". Staying in Ramallah, Arafat arranged to have his statement broadcast by Al Jazeera, but the PA delegation left the conference room in protest, and threatened to leave the summit meeting altogether. Jordanian PM Ali Abu Ragheb said the Arab peace initiative would stand as "a clear message to the whole world, saying that the Arabs want peace and they are endeavouring to reach peace and Israel is the one that is putting obstacles in the way of this peace". Though other Arab leaders used their opening remarks to endorse the Saudi proposal, they also emphasised they expected Israel to comply with their conditions fully as a prelude to any actual settlement. Syrian Pres. Bashar Assad said he considered all of Israel an armed camp, and argued that Palestinian fighters had no obligation to distinguish between military and civilian targets in their attacks.

He said: "This intifada has started to make the Israeli people understand. So the more we want peace, the more we will support the intifada". The Iraqi delegation also argued that it is continued fighting that will win concessions from Israel. They refrained from any public endorsement of Abdullah's proposal. In ratifying a Saudi peace initiative on March 28, Arab states held out the prospect of normal relations with Israel, provided it withdraws from all the territory it occupied in the 1967 war and somehow accommodates the refugees of the 1948 war. Referring to the continuing Palestinian uprising, Arab League Sec-Gen. Amr Moussa said: "It's not a question of terrorism. It's a question of occupation of Arab land, which necessarily leads to legitimate resistance". Arafat spokesman Qaddoumi said: "The United States still hesitates to take a strict decision to stop the Israeli aggression, though it declared its vision for a Palestinian state and reaffirmed its decision in the United Nations resolution". Calling the proposed ceasefire "deceptive", Qaddoumi said: "The United States is ignoring the Israeli actions, and claiming it is self-defence. This means that the Israeli-Arab conflict will be prolonged". Qaddoumi's speech amounted to an appeal for increased Arab support for a continuing Palestinian uprising, which he said had managed to "terrify the Israeli society" and suggested would not end until the occupation did. He said: "The Palestinian people are launching the war of Arab destiny to end the occupation". He said that because of Palestinian fighting, Israel "lost stability and security; psychological problems spread, and unemployment and emigration rose". Referring to the continuing suicide bombings by Palestinian militants in Israel (see Arabs-Israel), Saudi FM Prince Saud Al Faisal said: "Those are losses we cannot condone. The Israeli people have a right to live in peace, if they respond to conditions of peace". He noted that Palestinians were also killed, adding: "If I mention one death here do I mention the other death there? Where do you end? Blood only brings blood". The summit meeting also focused on the situation around Iraq. At the closing session, Arab leaders declared they rejected "the threat of an aggression on some Arab countries, particularly Iraq, and assert the categorical rejection of attacking Iraq or threatening the security and safety of any Arab state, and consider it a threat to the national security of all the Arab states". In return for the support, Baghdad agreed to recognise Kuwait as an independent state and not to invade it again (see Iraq). But Kuwaiti officials remained sceptical about Baghdad's move. The Iraqi government also said it would work with the UN to implement ceasefire provisions established after the Gulf war and would join an Arab initiative that envisions peace with Israel. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz took the unusual step of publicly kissing Baghdad's representative in front of TV cameras, underscoring that the Arab leaders are ready to welcome Iraq back into their fold. (This appeared to be a rebuff to the US administration and another sign of its limited influence in a region. In Washington, the State Department expressed grave doubts about the accord between Iraq and Kuwait, with State Department spokesman Richard Boucher saying: "If true, that would be good. But Iraq has never evidenced real intent to respect Kuwaiti sovereignty").