LOC01:29
22:29 GMT
CAIRO, March 4 (KUNA) -- The Arab League Council, which held its 139th
session on the permanent-delegate level here on Monday, adopted a draft
resolution to form an Arab ministerial delegation for contacting the world's
major power to resolve the Syrian crisis and re-launch the Middle East peace
talks.
The draft suggests holding consultations with the UN Security Council, the
US Administration, Russia, China and the European Union on the agenda of the
substantive peace talks within a specific and viable timeframe; it was
referred to the Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting, due here tomorrow.
It envisaging forming a ministerial delegation, led by Qatari Prime
Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani and insisting
of representatives of Egypt, Jordan and Palestine as well as the League's
Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi, to explore the executive steps vis-a-vis the
conflict in Syria.
On the Arab-Israeli conflict, the draft resolution reaffirms commitment to
fair, permanent and comprehensive peace as a strategic option for stability in
the Middle East.
Such a settlement can be reached only through complete Israeli pullout from
the Palestinian, and other Arab, territories occupied by Israel since June,
1967, and solving the problem of the Palestinian refugees who were forced to
leave their homes as a result of the 1948 Middle East war, according to the
document.
It also envisages establishing an independent fully-sovereign state of
Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital city in consistency with the
relevant UN resolutions.
It urges stepping up the lobbing for Palestine's full membership in the UN
and its affiliated agencies.
The draft calls for holing, as early as possible, the second Paris meeting
on the ministerial level to lobby for helping the Palestinian people in the
West Bank and enhancing the reconstruction of Gaza Strip.
It tasks the Arab group of states to lobby for sending a UN fact-finding
mission to the Palestinian occupied territories to verify the illegitimate
Jewish settlement expansions there.
The group should also lobby for another UN Security Council resolution to
condemn the settlement constructions in the occupied territories, the draft
suggests, condemning the US for vetoing a similar Arab-sponsored text before.
A ministerial delegation should be formed to assess the possibility of
re-launching the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks within a specific timeframe
and review the viability of the International Diplomatic Quartet which failed
so far to make headway in the peace process, according to the draft.
The draft welcomes the concord deal, hammed by the Palestinian Fatah and
Hamas movements on May 4, 2011, and the subsequent Doha and Cairo
declarations, and appreciates the mediation efforts made by Qatar and Egypt.
It denounces as "provocative, racist and extremist" the remarks made
recently by Israeli acting foreign Avigdor Lieberman against Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas.
It calls for a special session by the UN General Assembly to discuss the
suffering of the Palestinian, and other Arab, detainees at the Israeli jails.
It suggests providing an Arab financing for the faltering Palestinian
economy at a rate of USD 100 million per month in addition to the USD 500
million for the Aqsa and Jerusalem funds.
The draft commends Qatar for hosting an international conference under
auspices of the League in support of the Palestinian residents in Jerusalem
against the Israeli attempts to evict them of their home and Judaize the holy
city.
It calls on the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East (UNRWA) to shoulder its responsibility in offering all possible care
for the Palestinians inside and outside the occupied territories. (end)
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