President Assad’s Amman Summit Guidelines
The coming Arab Summit in Amman should- supposedly- reflect Arab citizens’ needs, fears, aspirations and preoccupations. In the absence of the guardian of Arabs’ dignity, pride, secularity and amity, namely President Bashar Hafez Al-Assad, the summit is called upon to consider and underline the following guidelines enshrined by the first and only Arab Leader who declared in Cairo , September 21, 2000 that “he did not find any excuse for not holding an Arab summit in a regular way.”
As a matter of fact, supposedly, the Summit should condemn the war of terrorism, financed and armed by some of the attendee, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others, should call for a stop in supporting terrorism against Syrians, should call for the lifting of the imposed unjust sanctions imposed on the Syria; OR should it be a Marshal Plan for reconstruction and building; OR should it be an occasion for repentance and commitment to implement UN Security Council anti-terrorism resolutions! OR should it be a push for an activation for Arabs’ Beirut Peace Initiative!
Here are some of the guidelines enshrined and outlined by H.E. President Assad in his address to Amman Summit, March 27, 2001:
“We must be careful not to turn this summit into ‘a Wailing Wall’ were we sit to complain and whine, or into a charity where we meet in order to beg the world for aid. We must be courageous, make courageous resolutions, and beware of considerations that are not useful for us.”
“Your Excellences, Highness, and Majesties, you are called upon to unanimously agree as not to disagree and to take ” courageous decisions” through the Summit with a ‘ responsible and frank dialogue” ‘ hence our people aspire for many outcomes from the summit” and to” boost the mechanism of Arab joint actions at all levels with no limits”. The masses of your people are in waiting for your long-awaited for sound, rational and workable plans of action.”
“We have never been aggressors against Israel; We, however, have ever been attacked by Israe,”
“The Israelis are afraid of the past with its historical perspective hence they have no history where they have never exist in this region,”
“…the Israelis very well know that they ” don’t own this land, which is possessed by Arabs”.
” the person on whom aggression falls should seek security. We have to make sure that Israel would never launch an aggression against us, bombard an institution in Iraq, or assassinate an official in Tunisia or in Malta,”
“There would never be a peace without the retaining of the land in full and without the security of each Arab citizen,” the President underlined.”
“…the Israelis ” through their military solutions move from a failure to another” ….the Israelis, furthermore, didn’t forget their defeat in Lebanon at the hands of the Lebanese Resistance in less than a year,”
” The Israelis killed Rabin, when they suspected that he would offer something for peace, a mere suspense made them kill him though he was the hero in breaking the Palestinians’ bones during the first Intifada.”
” The Israelis have no desire for genuine peace…Syria’s cling for the ” Just and comprehensive peace based on Madrid Terms of Reference, withdrawal from the Lebanese , Syrian, and Palestinian territories to June4 1967 lines, the return of East Jerusalem, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital,”
“It is not logical that we make all efforts to implement the advice that comes to us from foreign non-Arab countries, (but) when the Arab public ask us to do something – we say it is undoable. On the contrary: we are 300 million Arabs, and when we make a courageous and clear resolution, 300 million will support us morally and materially. If we don’t, nobody, Arab or non-Arab, will stand by us and we will go from bad to worse.”
“Therefore, we must beware not to fall in the trap of making our position and policies depend on Israeli figures or on the Israeli public, which proves day in and day out that it opposes peace.”
“The Israelis are afraid of three things: The first point is their recent past of oppression that began some years before the declaration of the State of Palestine in 1948 [sic.]. The second point is their past in the general sense, meaning history. They do not have a history. We have history and they know this very well. They were out of the region for thousands of years. The third is the land. Every Israeli knows that he is not the owner of this land. This land is owned by the Arabs, and so, Israel never feels confident…”
“As Arabs we consider all the Israelis right-wingers…’ Peres’s present to the Israeli public opinion through Qana Massacre’ ” Barak presented more than 400 Palestinian martyrs,”
”The reality of the Israeli public opinion should be probed; Israel is a racial society and a more racist one than the Nazism,”
Arabs are called on as not to “fall in the trap of linking our stances and policies on our causes to those on persons in Israel or among the Israeli street,”
“Every single Israeli is responsible for each span of the occupied Arab territories and for every Arab to be killed,”
“The Palestinian Intifada is ongoing and with enthusiasm amid an increasing national spirit,”
Arabs are called upon to provide support for the Intifada through ” Direct financial aids”, ” an international campaign to speak of the Intifada as the legitimate resistance,”, and through ‘ Arab-Arab coordination,”.
“Syria rejection of any unjust, deformed and partial peace…”
…the failure of ten years of pressures on Syria as to accept a deformed peace in ” the failing ten years of the peace process,”
“The Syrian power chips are at the service of the Palestinian Cause, which has ever been the central cause for Syria and for all Arabs, We never accept to sort the Syrian issue at the expense of Palestinian,”
Syria’s support for the full return of East Jerusalem, all Palestinian Refugees, every Arab right, and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital.
” Syria could never be a stick by Israel against Palestinians under any condition,”
” Illusion are those who were to believe as to put pressure on Syria through the Palestinian track,”
” Urgent lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq” and for ” An Arab decisive and united stance from any bombardment against Iraq”.
” Arab-Arab differences would be definitely sorted out sooner or later, and sooner is the best,”
“We say to our Palestinian brothers in and out of this hall, and everywhere in the world: our cards are in the service of the Palestinian cause.”
“We reach our hands to our Palestinian brothers and tell them: ‘We stand by you in the service of the Palestinian cause knowing that the Syrian method and logic leads to one and one only clear and defined goal: the return of the Arab rights in their entirety… they do not lead to concessions.”
“Therefore, we stand by you [in your demand] for regaining East Jerusalem in its entirety, for an Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borderline, for the return of all refugees with no exception, for the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, for support for the Intifada, and for regaining every Arab right…”
“It is important to renew the laws of the Arab boycott on Israel by stopping all forms of cooperation and all relations with it until it surrenders to the terms of peace.”
“…the speeding up of the creation of a joint Arab market, and reactivation of the Arab League Charter are called for,”
“the US Administration is called upon as to benefit by lessons and mistakes of the past ”
“…he Arab public opinion could never be jumped over when it comes to causes pertaining to the people’s rights”.
“Russia and the European Union are called upon for an active role.”
” …the Summit is called upon as to be ” up to the people’s expectations.”
In light of the ongoing 16 years following Amman’s Summit, hopefully the summit is to recall too some of its main Final Communiqué that
“The Arab leaders discussed the dangers that the Palestinian are passing through as a result of the large scale aggression launched by Israeli occupation forces using all kinds of weapons including those internationally prohibited in addition to the strict economic siege , the continuation of settlement policy and the demolition of (Palestinian) homes in flagrant violation of all international charters and conventions.”
The Arab leaders “called on the states to Geneva 1949 Agreement to hold a international conference as soon as possible to take necessary measures to ensure protection for the Palestinian civilians and they asked the UN Security Council to try Israeli war criminals who committed massacres and crimes against Arab citizens in all occupied Arab territories and outside”.
Further, “They expressed their deep displeasure at the use of the veto by the United States against the Security Council draft resolution on protecting the Palestinian people and forming UN forces to monitor the situation in Palestinian land. The also expressed total rejection of the American justifications in this regard . The Arab leaders warned Israel from what might happen in case it gets away from terms of references and the principles upon which the peace process was launched in Madrid in 1991.
They stressed that the Syrian and Lebanese (peace) tracks are inseparable and they are linked with the Palestinian track. They affirmed their adherence to the Security Council resolutions pertinent to the status of Jerusalem and decided to suspend the Arab countries’ participation in the Middle East multilateral peace talks and to continue halting all forms of economic regional cooperation with Israel.
They decided to stand firm in face of Israel’s infiltration in the Arab world under any pretext and to stop establishing any form of relations with Israel. What has so far been achieved? The more of massacres and killings might be the only answer! Arab masses displeasure is even more felt amid nuclear threats and bids to garner support as to launch a strike against an Arab country shattered by unjust sanctions!
They called for “activating the Arab boycott to Israel through holding regular boycott conferences called for by the main boycott office that aims to prevent dealings with Israel under the laws of boycott. They (Arab leaders) affirmed their complete solidarity with Syria and Lebanon as well as their rejection of the recent increasing threats against these two countries, the Arab countries and the Palestinian people. They called for drawing up a clear cut strategy to expose Israeli plots which do not serve peace and threaten security and stability in the region. The Arab leaders asserted support to Lebanon to help the country liberate its land in full including Chebba Farms.
They hailed the Lebanese resistance and demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel. They affirmed that achieving durable peace and security requires from Israel to enter into the international treaty banning the infiltration of nuclear weapons and to make Israel’s nuclear facilities subject to international inspection stressing in the meantime to make the Middle East region free from all forms of weapons of mass destruction. The Arab leaders gave special attention to Arab economic integration and they are taking necessary steps to activate it.
They also gave due attention to developing Arab capabilities in the fields of information technology and telecommunications being vital for coordination at the Arab level.
Dr. Mohammad Abdo Al-Ibrahim