Arab States to Issue Ultimatum to Israel

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The Arab League is formulating an ultimatum to be issued Monday warning Israel that it must accept the League's terms for an Arab-Israel agreement. If Israel refuses, the Arab League statement indicates, the offer will be off the table. Meanwhile, the Arab League is hosting a leader charged with racist massacres of non-Arabs in his own country.

 

If approved by the Arab leaders attending the Arab League meeting in Qatar on Monday, the statement will declare that the proposed agreement, credited to Saudi Arabia, will soon be rescinded if Israel fails to accept it. The draft was composed by Arab foreign ministers meeting ahead of the summit.

The 2002 Saudi Initiative, as it has come to be known, calls for: 1) full Israeli withdrawal from all lands under Jewish sovereignty since 1967, including Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and all of Judea and Samaria; 2) Israeli agreement to accept Arab war refugees; 3) Israeli acceptance of a Palestinian Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, with Jerusalem as its capital. In exchange, the Arab states would agree to enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and "consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended."

Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi, head of the Arab Renewal Movement faction, will be attending some Arab League meetings. According to the Hebrew-language Ha'aretz newspaper, Tibi is pushing for the Arab League to call on the international community to force Israel to accept the creation of a Palestinian state.

Aside from the ultimatum, the Arab leaders will be discussing a roster of 26 items. Of these, a separate agenda item is devoted to Syria's claims on the Golan Heights. The League will also hold sessions on the incoming Israeli government and the situation in southern Lebanon, as well as the issue of Hamas-Fatah clashes in the Palestinian Authority. Other topics include the international financial crisis, the situation in Iraq and Somalia, as well as the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir - who will be at the Qatar meeting despite the warrant. Bashir is charged with facilitating the mass killings of Sudanese non-Arabs in Darfur.

A key Arab leader, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, will not be attending the Arab League Summit, according to the Arabic media, because of what he sees as Qatar's interference in negotiations over the return of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. In addition, Egypt is incensed at Qatar's intention to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the Arab League Summit, as well as what Mubarak sees as ongoing criticism of Egypt on the Al-Jazeera network, hosted in Qatar.

Source: Israel National News

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