sirte, libya | Arab leaders have renewed their support for Mideast peace efforts, rejecting pressure from Syria and Libya on the Palestinians to abandon talks with Israel and resume armed resistance.
The Arab League’s backing for a land-for-peace initiative with Israel came despite its firm opposition to Israeli plans for Jewish construction in east Jerusalem, land Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state.
“The Arab peace initiative is a serious move,” Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa told reporters March 28 at the conclusion of the Arab League’s two-day summit. “If we withdraw it, what will be the Arab stance after that?”
But calls from Syria and Libya — which were later echoed by Hamas — to abandon any peace efforts reflected the depth of anger at Israel and at continued Israeli construction in areas claimed by the Palestinians, particularly east Jerusalem.
Syrian President Bashar Assad urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw from a U.S.-supported peace strategy and take up arms against Israel, according to two delegates who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
They said Assad also urged Arab countries to halt any contacts with Israel, though only Egypt and Jordan have peace deals with the Jewish state.
“The price of resistance is not higher than the price of peace,” one delegate quoted Assad as telling Abbas.
Summit host Moammar Gadhafi of Libya warned that his nation will withdraw support for the peace initiative launched at a 2002 Arab League summit in Beirut.
Hamas criticized the summit’s support for peace negotiations. The radical Islamic terrorist group then urged Arabs to instead “try a new strategy” and unite behind resistance groups, sever diplomatic ties with Israel and support boycott campaigns of the Jewish state.
“The summit’s persistence in keeping negotiations as a strategic option, without considering alternative ways, the foremost of which is resistance, will only add to the arrogance of the Zionist occupation,” the group said in a statement issued in Damascus, Syria.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a senior Abbas aide, swiftly dismissed the pressure from Hamas.
“Let us be realistic. We will not follow those who have special agendas,” he told Al-Jazeera television. “We are ready for any Arab option. If they want to go to war let them declare that and mobilize their armies and their people and we will follow suit.”
The wrangling reflects deep division among Arabs over how to deal with the stalled Mideast talks.
Last month, Arab nations opened the door for Abbas to enter four months of indirect, U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel. But Abbas has since rejected the talks.
Speaking at the summit, Abbas vowed that the Palestinians will not sign any peace deal with Israel without the Jewish state ending its “occupation” of east Jerusalem. He also accused the Netanyahu government of trying to create a de facto situation in Jerusalem that would torpedo any future peace settlement.