Thu, Mar 30, 2006 page7

• Arab leaders expect little change after Israeli poll

  • AGENCIES
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  Arab leaders meeting in Khartoum said yesterday they expected little change from Israeli elections in which Ehud Olmert claimed victory.

  The interim prime minister pledges to retain parts of the occupied West Bank in which there are large Jewish settlement blocs, give up other areas and impose a border unilaterally on the Palestinians.

  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the election result would make no difference unless Olmert changed his policies.

  "This result will not change [anything] as long as the agenda of Olmert himself does not change and he does not abandon the question of `unilateral agreements,'" Abbas told reporters in Khartoum, where he is attending the annual Arab summit.

  Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said the victory of Olmert's Kadima party was expected and it was more important to see the shape of the coalition he would put together and "what its course would be -- peaceful or not."

  "The ball is in the Israeli court because during these years since the launch of Madrid [the 1991 peace conference in Madrid], Israel with all its ruling parties has put obstacles in the way of attaining peace," he added.

  Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said: "It's not comprehensible leaving the issue of Jerusalem or accepting unilateral withdrawals according to Israeli whims. This will not work but will only lead to worsening matters more and more."

  "It is impossible to accept Israeli proposals that we have seen so far. Is there anything new the new Israeli government can come up with? Many Arabs don't think so, so the Arab world has to look at all the possibilities," he added.

  The Arab summit, which ended yesterday, renewed an Arab offer of peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal from territory occupied since the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has in the past rejected the offer.

  The summit also opposed unilateral steps by Israel, calling for a return to multilateral peace negotiations under international supervision.

  Arab leaders also agreed on a US$150-million aid package for cash-strapped African Union (AU) troops deployed in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region.

  The move came after summit host Sudan sought to win backing for its opposition to plans for the dispatch of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine have cost up to 300,000 lives in three years.

  Arab leaders stopped short of an outright rejection of wider international intervention in the conflict, but said any deployment of any other troops should have the approval of the government in Khartoum.

  The leaders endorsed a resolution to allocate US$150 million to the African troops over the next six months and called on Arab countries to "provide financial and logistic support to the AU mission in Darfur to enable it to continue performing its tasks."

  The resolution stressed that the AU should "continue its efforts and accomplish its mission to end the crisis of Darfur," mainly through peace talks being held in Abuja, according to a copy seen by the press.

  Arab leaders also stipulated that the deployment of any other troops in the region required Sudan's "pre-approval" and called on "Arab African countries to strengthen their participation in the AU force."

  But regional heavyweight Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview published yesterday he would not send troops to Darfur unless there was a peace agreement between rebels and Khartoum.

  "Only then could Egypt take part in a peacekeeping force in this region," he told the weekly al-Mussawar.
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