Military

DATE=10/23/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268327

TITLE=ARAB SUMMIT / REACT (L ONLY)

BYLINE=SCOTT BOBB

DATELINE=CAIRO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Many in the Arab world are reacting with a mixture of disappointment and resignation to the two-day Arab summit meeting that ended Sunday in Egypt. But V-O-A Middle East Correspondent Scott Bobb in Cairo reports some Arab officials see positive results from the meetings.

TEXT: Iraq was one of the first Arab governments to react to the summit. The ruling Revolutionary Command Council met late Sunday and in a statement issued Monday characterized the meeting as weak resolutions issued by a failing and vicious summit. The statement said Jerusalem will be liberated only by holy war and it called on Arab people to rise up against their leaders.

Iraq sent a senior delegation to the first Arab summit it has attended since the Gulf War. However, an official said its delegation did not vote for the final declaration.

Libya walked out of the meeting Saturday when it became clear Arab nations would not break relations with Israel.

The Arab summit, however, halted all normalization of ties between its members and Israel. It also called on the United Nations to protect the Palestinian people from Israeli attacks, launch an investigation into the violence, and form a war crimes tribunal to prosecute those responsible for it.

Syria on Monday also let it be known it is not fully satisfied with the summit. A senior official said Syria wants stronger action against Israel, but added that the summit nevertheless passed some positive resolutions.

Two radical Palestinian groups based in Syria, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, criticized the summit. They said they want the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to continue until all Palestinian lands are free and a state is formed with Jerusalem as its capital.

Lebanon, which recently regained control of its southern border area after a 22-year Israeli occupation, acknowledged the summit was below the expectations of the Arab public. But President Emile Lahoud said the decision to hold annual Arab summits raises hope for a stronger joint Arab response in the future.

The Hezbollah movement, which led the Lebanese resistance to the Israeli occupation, called the summit's decisions insufficient but said it expects them to propel the Palestinian intifada to a stronger level.

Morocco's Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa said the summit represented a political intifada against injustice, aggression, and terrorism. And he said it sent a message to the United States, Russia, and the European Union that their interests in the Arab world will be compromised if they do not take Arab rights into consideration.

In the Gulf region, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said the summit resolutions did not meet the expectations of the Palestinian or Muslim people. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the Middle East crisis will be resolved only when Israel is eliminated.

In Bahrain, the government announced it will contribute three-million dollars to a one-billion-dollar fund established by the summit to support the intifada and Palestinian victims of the conflict. (Signed)

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