The leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria concluded a two-day summit in Egypt on Thursday with a statement of strong support for Syria’s stance in its deadlocked negotiations with Israel.
Meeting in the port city of Alexandria, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd and Syrian President Hafez Assad said that peace in the Middle East should be achieved on the basis of U.N. Security Council resolutions calling on Israel to withdraw from Arab lands and on the principle of land for peace.
“In this regard, the leaders highly appreciate Syria’s position and its serious efforts to make the peace process a success,” the statement said.
The leaders also called on Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for peace with Syria.
Israel has refused to make the commitment to withdraw until Damascus spells out the kind of peace it envisions, a move Syria has so far refused to make.
They also called on Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, to sign a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
Diplomatic sources indicate that Syria sought the meeting because it fears that it is becoming increasingly isolated as Arab countries abandon their unified front to forge separate peace treaties or establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
According to one diplomat, Syria requested the meeting after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made a one-day visit to the Persian Gulf state of Oman earlier in the week. After meeting with Omani leader Sultan Qaboos Bin Said on Monday, Rabin returned home with the announcement that the two countries hoped to establish diplomatic ties in the near future.
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