By NNN-KUNA,
Cairo : Arab foreign ministers, at the conclusion of their 130th session, have affirmed the Arabs’ commitment to establishing a just and comprehensive peace in the region as a strategic option.
The ministers, in a final statement Monday, reaffirmed that the aspired just peace in the region could not be realised without Israel’s full pullout from the occupied Arab territories, namely the Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 border line, in addition to lands that remained under the Israeli occupation in southern Lebanon.
They called for finding a just settlement to the plight of the Palestinians in diaspora in line with the UN resolution 194 of 1948, rejected all forms of settlement activity, renewed the call for establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the basis of the Arab peace initiative.
The Arab officials expressed support for the Palestinian authority in its current negotiations with the Israelis on final status issues, rejected schemes to partition the Palestinian territories, called on super powers, namely the United States to pressure Israel halt all settlement schemes and urged for launching immediate peace talks on all tracks to reach a final settlement of the regional conflict.
On internal Palestinian affairs, the Arab officials reasserted support for the authority of Mahmoud Abbas, called for reinstating conditions in Gaza to the status that existed before June 2007, when the Islamic Hamas movement took over the Strip in bloody fighting with followers of Abbas’ Fatah movement.
They called for realising inter-Palestinian conciliation and warned that if conditions remain unchanged “the struggle of the Palestinian people would be undermined.”
Regarding the regional water issue, the Arab foreign ministers condemned Israel’s redirection of water routes in the occupied territories, depriving the Palestinian natives of their natural resource.
They affirmed support for Syria’s quest to liberate the Golan and backed the Lebanese government in fighting terrorist groups.
The Arab ministerial council issued a reminder of the aggravating plight of Iraqi refugees settling in Arab states, condemned human rights violations during Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait and the plots to distort facts relating to the issue of the prisoners.
They rejected the US accountability law against Syria, urged Washington to start constructive dialogue with Damascus and discussed the western curbs on Syria.
The officials expressed deep concern over the bids to prosecute the Sudanese president by an international tribunal, reaffirmed the UAE rights in the three Iranian-occupied islands and called on Tehran to refrain from provocative acts against Abu Dhabi.
On the Lockerbie affair, the ministers affirmed Tripoli’s rights for compensations for impact of the curbs, called for the release of Libyan citizen Abdel Basset Al-Miqrihi and urged Britain to release some documents and hand them over to the defence team of the imprisoned Libyan for addressing a petition to the Scottish criminal court cross-examining the case.