Post by maxell on Mar 28, 2007 6:53:39 GMT -5
Assad Embraced by Saudi Monarch, Lahoud Welcomed by Deputy Provincial Emir
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday flew into Riyadh to a traditional embrace from Saudi King Abdullah, while his Lebanese counterpart-ally Emile Lahoud was welcomed by deputy prince of the Saudi capital.
The welcome was the first contact between Assad and Abdullah since relations chilled after last year's Lebanon war.
Lahoud, an ally of Assad, was welcomed by Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz, deputy head of the Riyadh province, the same official who welcomed Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, Lahoud's main rival.
The two Lebanese officials flew separately to Saudi Arabia, reflecting differences that have gripped the nation for more than six months.
Assad, Lahoud and Saniora were in Riyadh along with other Arab leaders for the two-day summit which opens on Wednesday.
In a speech last August, Assad said the Israel-Hizbullah war had "exposed the Arab situation entirely... because it has downed the people of half positions, or the half men, and brought down all the tardy positions."
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had implicitly blamed Hizbullah, backed by Damascus and Tehran, for the devastation wrought by the war which broke out in Lebanon after the group kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
Regional newspapers said Assad was criticizing the leaders of moderate Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said his president was not referring to any Arab leader.
The summit is expected to formally re-launch the long dormant Arab plan for Middle East peace and actively seek negotiations with Israel.
The annual meeting of heads of state convenes after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to Arab governments to "begin reaching out to Israel" by building on the peace blueprint first adopted at a summit in Beirut in 2002.
Arab foreign ministers agreed to revive the plan in preparatory talks on Monday. The blueprint offers Israel full normalization of relations if it withdraws from all lands it occupied in 1967, and permits the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and author of the blueprint, lobbied fellow Arab states to endorse the plan's revival, leaning particularly on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which now leads a government of national unity with the Fatah party of president Mahmoud Abbas.
Unlike the Lebanese delegation, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Abbas flew into Riyadh aboard the same plane in a show of unity.
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also reportedly assured Saudi Arabia that the group, which does not recognize Israel, will back whatever consensus the Arab summit reaches on the peace plan.
Palestinian foreign minister Ziad Abu Amr, an independent in the new unity cabinet who is seen as an acceptable interlocutor by the West, told AFP that the international community should "isolate Israel" if it spurns the Arab peace offer.
Israel rejected the peace blueprint when it was first adopted five years ago, but Israeli leaders have recently spoken of the plan as a starting point for talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni identified the plan's insistence on the right of return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Middle East war as a particular stumbling block.
Arab ministers said their offer of talks with all parties including Israel was intended to address such problems.
The Arab League was "sending a clear message to the world about their determination to strive for peace," one minister told AFP.
Ministers were "declaring their readiness to open negotiations with the Jewish state about the modalities of their initiative, namely the thorny question of Palestinian refugees," he said.
The minister said the contacts would be undertaken by working teams whose membership would reflect the varying "relations with the rest of the world" of different Arab states.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with Israel, will handle the contacts with the Jewish state, he added. (AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 27 Mar 07, 19:17
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday flew into Riyadh to a traditional embrace from Saudi King Abdullah, while his Lebanese counterpart-ally Emile Lahoud was welcomed by deputy prince of the Saudi capital.
The welcome was the first contact between Assad and Abdullah since relations chilled after last year's Lebanon war.
Lahoud, an ally of Assad, was welcomed by Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz, deputy head of the Riyadh province, the same official who welcomed Prime Minister Fouad Saniora, Lahoud's main rival.
The two Lebanese officials flew separately to Saudi Arabia, reflecting differences that have gripped the nation for more than six months.
Assad, Lahoud and Saniora were in Riyadh along with other Arab leaders for the two-day summit which opens on Wednesday.
In a speech last August, Assad said the Israel-Hizbullah war had "exposed the Arab situation entirely... because it has downed the people of half positions, or the half men, and brought down all the tardy positions."
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal had implicitly blamed Hizbullah, backed by Damascus and Tehran, for the devastation wrought by the war which broke out in Lebanon after the group kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
Regional newspapers said Assad was criticizing the leaders of moderate Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said his president was not referring to any Arab leader.
The summit is expected to formally re-launch the long dormant Arab plan for Middle East peace and actively seek negotiations with Israel.
The annual meeting of heads of state convenes after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to Arab governments to "begin reaching out to Israel" by building on the peace blueprint first adopted at a summit in Beirut in 2002.
Arab foreign ministers agreed to revive the plan in preparatory talks on Monday. The blueprint offers Israel full normalization of relations if it withdraws from all lands it occupied in 1967, and permits the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and author of the blueprint, lobbied fellow Arab states to endorse the plan's revival, leaning particularly on the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas which now leads a government of national unity with the Fatah party of president Mahmoud Abbas.
Unlike the Lebanese delegation, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and Abbas flew into Riyadh aboard the same plane in a show of unity.
Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal also reportedly assured Saudi Arabia that the group, which does not recognize Israel, will back whatever consensus the Arab summit reaches on the peace plan.
Palestinian foreign minister Ziad Abu Amr, an independent in the new unity cabinet who is seen as an acceptable interlocutor by the West, told AFP that the international community should "isolate Israel" if it spurns the Arab peace offer.
Israel rejected the peace blueprint when it was first adopted five years ago, but Israeli leaders have recently spoken of the plan as a starting point for talks.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni identified the plan's insistence on the right of return of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Middle East war as a particular stumbling block.
Arab ministers said their offer of talks with all parties including Israel was intended to address such problems.
The Arab League was "sending a clear message to the world about their determination to strive for peace," one minister told AFP.
Ministers were "declaring their readiness to open negotiations with the Jewish state about the modalities of their initiative, namely the thorny question of Palestinian refugees," he said.
The minister said the contacts would be undertaken by working teams whose membership would reflect the varying "relations with the rest of the world" of different Arab states.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have peace treaties with Israel, will handle the contacts with the Jewish state, he added. (AFP-Naharnet)
Beirut, 27 Mar 07, 19:17