The Hindu : Arabs, E.U. call for restraint

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 30, 2002

International

International

Arabs, E.U. call for restraint

Beirut March 29. Arab and European officials today criticised Israel for its military drive against the Palestinian leadership as Palestinian factions pledged to unite against the offensive on the West Bank.

But the United States, Israel's main patron, had little comment on the move with tanks, troops and helicopters against the Palestinian chief, Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters. With White House and State Department officials unavailable for comment, the U.S. Ambassador to Beirut offered only that violence was no solution to political problems.

There was no word from the U.S. envoy, Anthony Zinni, who has been trying for two weeks to broker an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and halt 18 months of violence that has cost more than 1,600 lives. Lebanon, as chair of the just-concluded Arab summit, strongly condemned the Israeli action and urged the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union to intervene.

"Only hours after the Arab peace initiative was adopted at the Beirut summit, Israel responded with a barbarous war and an arrogant savage aggression," a Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement said. "What Israel is doing confirms again that it is a terrorist State which rejects peace," the statement added.

Israel's all-out push against Mr. Arafat clouded a Saudi initiative adopted by the two-day summit ending yesterday to offer Israel normal ties in return for its withdrawal from lands seized in the 1967 West Asia war. "The presidency of the Arab summit denounces in the strongest manner this arrogant aggression," the statement said. It urged "all those who back the Arab peace initiative to act immediately to deter Israel and its aggression."

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafiq Hariri, spoke with the French President, Jacques Chirac, who promised to do all he could to help restore calm, a government source said. Mr. Hariri also held talks with the U.S. Ambassador, Vincent Battle, who said incidents of violence were "not really solutions" to the Arab-Israeli conflict. "I think that the vision expressed by all members of the (Arab) summit underlines the reality that solutions by violence and a spiral of violence are not really solutions at all," Mr. Battle told reporters.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Maher, called the Israeli attempt to isolate Mr. Arafat "an aggression and a stupid act" . — AFP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

Stories in this Section

U.S. upset by Russia-N. Korea project

Arabs, E.U. call for restraint

Militant factions vow to fight back

'Sort out terrorist list issue through talks'

Russia raps Israel

Plea for death sentence

Rain, mines slow Afghan quake aid

U.K. schools a'nightmare' for Indian teachers

Tikka Khan dead

Better prospects for peace this time

Awami League sets conditions for talks

Five Indians killed in Dubai shipyard accident