By Xinhua
Damascus : The 20th Arab League (AL) Summit kicked off in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Saturday, attracting only 10 heads of state of Arab countries besides President Bashar al-Assad of the host.
With Lebanon embroiled in a political stalemate skipping this year’s Arab summit, the decades-long Palestinian issue once again is top on the agenda of the gathering of Arab leaders.
Addressing the opening session of the two-day summit, al-Assad slammed Israel for its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying security could not be achieved by wars.
Al-Assad highlighted that “priority should be given to the Palestinian dialogue” to solve the divisions between rival Palestinian movements.
The unity of stand is the guarantee for the Palestinians to regain their rights, lands and the return of refugees, he said.
Al-Assad expressed Syria’s appreciation to the efforts of Yemen and support to the Yemeni initiative aimed at achieving Palestinian reconciliation, saying that “we see in this initiativean appropriate framework for an agreement between Palestinian sides.”
After the bloody conflict between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the Gaza Strip last June, the two rivals have been spilt up, with Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
The seven-clause Yemeni-brokered initiative called for holding early legislative and presidential elections in the Palestinian territories.
Long before the summit, some Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, conditioned their attendance at the Damascus summit with the presence of Lebanon, raising the ever prominent Lebanese political stalemate to be the front-runner among all key Arab issues.
However, the Palestinian issue finally spearheaded the agenda after Lebanon decided to boycott the summit with no president available for the Arab gathering.
A long-awaited parliamentary session to elect a successor to former President Emile Lahoud was postponed for 17th time till April 22, crushing out the last glimmer of hope to mend a rift between the host and the regional heavyweights.
Abbas, expectably, capitalized on the summit, calling on Arabs and the international community to help protect the Palestinians.
Abbas focused his speech at the opening session on Israel’s practices in the Palestinian territories, mainly Jewish settlements expansion, arrests in the West Bank and the military offensives on the Gaza Strip.
“Israel is practicing collective punishments against the Palestinian people. It hasn’t stopped the ongoing arrests of Palestinians in the West Bank, keeping in jail more than 11,000 people,” said Abbas.
Abbas revealed that he offered a full and mutual truce with Israel and a plan to run Gaza crossings, including the crossing on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
He warned that if the Palestinians and Israelis do not reach a pact on the permanent status issues by the end of 2008, “the whole area of the Middle East would be passing through tension.”
Since relaunched at the U.S.-hosted Annapolis peace conference in November, the peace talks between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and the Jewish state have showed little sign of progress.
Abbas also said that the PNA accepted the Yemeni initiative, calling on Hamas “to end its control of Gaza and accept the commitments of Palestine Liberation Organization to the peace process.”
Moreover, AL Secretary General Amr Moussa called for a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in mid-2008 to evaluate the Arab-Israeli peace talks.
Moussa said Arab foreign ministers should meet in the middle of the year again to determine the direction the Arab states should take in the peace process with Israel.
The Arab summit stems a great part of its significance from its tremendous focus on the Palestinian issue, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General Abdul Rahman al-Attiya told reporters in Damascus on Saturday.