The Foreign Ministry believes the Arab summit conference in Amman last week strengthened the position of Jordan’s King Hussein and deepened the decline of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat, according to Al Hamishmar Friday.
The ministry’s appraisal is based on analysis of the resolutions passed at the summit, the newspaper notes.
Although many of the familiar extremist Arab declarations concerning the Israeli-Arab conflict were contained in the resolutions of the summit, they did not include the usual demand for an independent Palestinian state.
The resolution that the PLO must participate in a Mideast peace conference “on the basis of equality” was seen by the ministry as meaning that the PLO would not attend as a separate delegation, but as part of a joint delegation with Jordan.
Apparently, this could also allow the formation of a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, without explicit mention of the PLO. It was also noted that the summit did not adopt the anti-Israel formulations that the PLO had demanded.
In addition, it is said that the willingness to accept Egypt back into the Arab fold constitutes a de facto recognition of both the Camp David accords and the State of Israel.
SYRIA, TOO, MUST ‘OPEN THE DOOR’
Foreign Ministry Director-General Avraham Tamir was quoted Thursday as expressing on army radio his belief “that even Syria, despite some of its opinions, has to open the door to political negotiations without prior conditions. This is the central idea of an international conference. I believe that Syria, too, would prefer a political solution over a military solution.”
Haaretz quoted the Kuwaiti newspaper AI-Rai AI-Am as saying that Syria will receive $2.5 billion — presumably from wealthier Arab countries including Saudi Arabia — in exchange for its reconciliation with Iraq.
The paper reported that this was decided in meetings held between Presidents Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Hafez Assad of Syria at King Hussein’s residence.
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