Palestine question/Mideast situation – Final Declaration of the Arab Summit – letter from Algeria

Letter dated 15 June 1988 from the Permanent Representative of

Algeria to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On instructions from my Government, which hosted the Extraordinary Arab Summit Conference held at Algiers, from 22 to 24 Shawwal A.R. 1408, corresponding to 7 to 9 June A.D. 1988, I have the honor to transmit herewith the official Arabic text of the Final Declaration issued by the Conference. I should be grateful if you would have it circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under items 25, 29, 36, 37, 40, 48 and 77 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

ANNEX

Extraordinary Arab Summit Conference

Algiers, 22 to 24 Shawwal A.H. 1408

(7 to 9 June A.D. 1988)

Final Declaration

Initiative of His Excellency President Chadli Bendjedid and his i

invitation for the convening of the Extraordinary Summit Conference

On the initiative of His Excellency President Chadli Bendjedid, President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, and at his invitation, Their Majesties, Their Excellencies and Their Highnesses the Kings, Presidents and Amirs of the Arab States held an Extraordinary Summit Conference in the Algerian capital from 22 to 24 Shawwal A.H. 1408, corresponding to 7 to 9 June A.D. 1988.

Proceeding from its commitment to national and historic responsibility, the Conference studied the present and future challenges facing the Arab nation and the dangers to which its existence was exposed at this delicate and crucial stage, and it affirmed its resolve to protect national security and safeguard Arab territory.

The uprising of the Palestinian people

The Conference hailed the uprising of the Palestinian Arab people, which constituted a link in the chain of its struggle that has continued for more than half a century, inasmuch as it was an inseparable part of the Palestinian revolution, and which had helped to strengthen Arab solidarity. The Conference also hailed with pride and admiration the acts of heroism performed by the Palestinian people in resisting the Israeli occupation and that people's magnificent resolve to liberate its occupied territory and exercise its right to return, its right to self-determination and its right to establish its independent State on its national soil, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization, its sole legitimate representative. The Conference also hailed the struggle of the Syrian citizens in the Golan and the struggle of the Lebanese 1: national resistance in southern Lebanon against the Israeli occupation of Arab territory.

The Conference discussed measures to support the uprising, enhance its effectiveness and ensure its continuity and escalation. It affirmed its commitment to providing all necessary assistance, by all means and in all forms to the Palestinian people in order to ensure the continuation of its resistance and its uprising, under the leadership of the Palestine Liberation organization, in order that it might achieve its unshakable national goals.

The Conference reaffirmed its commitment to support the States confronting the Israeli enemy so as to enable the States to step up their defense capabilities and their potentials in order to liberate the occupied Arab territories and restore usurped Arab rights.

The Conference stressed that Israel's continued occupation of the Arab territories, its denial of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people and its repressive practices, which had assumed the form and the content of war crimes against the defenseless Palestinian people, clearly emphasized Israel's aggressive racist nature and expansionist ambitions.

The Conference called upon the United Nations Security Council to assume its responsibilities for compelling Israel to implement United Nations resolutions and the provisions of international conventions and halt its repressive and inhumane practices, to endeavor to achieve full and immediate Israeli withdrawal from all the occupied Arab territories and to place the Palestinian territories under temporary United Nations supervision, which would provide protection for their citizens and ensure the Palestinian people the exercise of its inalienable national rights.

The International Conference

The Conference reviewed developments relating to efforts to establish peace in the Middle East region and noted that these efforts were still characterized by slowness, ineffectiveness and inability to counter the Israeli position of insistence on the rejection of peace. The Conference stressed once again that the principles adopted by the Arab summit conferences, particularly those contained in the resolutions of the 1982 Fez Summit Conference, constituted a basis for the resolution of the Arab-Israel conflict and its core element, the question of Palestine. It renewed its support for the convening of the International Peace Conference on the Middle East under the auspices of the United Nations and on the basis of international legality and the United Nations resolutions calling upon Israel to withdraw completely from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories and guaranteeing the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. The participants in this Conference would include the five permanent members of the Security Council and all the parties to the conflict in the region, including the Palestine Liberation organization, the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, on an equal footing and with the same rights as the other parties.

The Arab Boycott of Israel

The Conference considered the legislation enacted by some foreign States against the Arab Boycott of Israel to be measures hostile to Arab interests and aimed at breaking through the isolation of the Zionist entity and boosting its economic capabilities, at a time when it was continuing its occupation of Arab territories.

The Conference renewed the commitment of member States to the continued application of the provisions of the Boycott as a legitimate means used in the past and in the present by other States and international groups.

United States policy and the question of Palestine

The Conference drew attention to the continued pursuit by the United States of America of its policy of pandering to Israel and hostility to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people. It condemned this policy, which encouraged Israel to continue its aggression and its violation of human rights, paralyzed efforts to establish peace and conflicted with the responsibilities Of the United States, as a permanent member of the Security Council, to preserve peace and international security.

Appreciation of support for the Palestinian people

The Conference expressed its great appreciation for the positions taken by the Non-Aligned Movement, the Organization of African Unity, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Socialist Group and also by the European States, peoples and parliaments and freedom- and peace-loving forces which had supported the Palestinian people in its just struggle. The Conference condemned the racist and repressive practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories.

Support for Lebanon and its national resistance

The Conference studied the grave circumstances through which Lebanon was passing and expressed its support for its endeavor to put an end to the Israeli occupation of the Lebanese south. It stressed its support for Lebanon in its defense of its sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and in its endeavor to put an end to the state of war, extend the sovereignty of the State throughout Lebanese territory and bring about the recovery of its economy. It renewed its urgent call for the concerting of all efforts for the achievement of national Unity.

The Conference hailed the Lebanese national resistance, stressing the continuity of its support and backing by all means for the steadfastness of the Lebanese people in the face of Israeli occupation.

The Iraq-Iran war

The Conference studied with great concern the subject of the Iraq-Iran war and the dangers arising from its continuation as a result of Iran's obduracy and insistence on continuing the war. That had a far-reaching effect on the mobilization of Arab forces and capabilities to counter Zionist aggression. The Conference reaffirmed the resolutions adopted by it at the Amman Extraordinary Summit Conference (November 1987) expressing the Arab position with regard to this war and referring to the aggression, threats and intervention in their internal affairs by Iran to which the Arab Gulf States were exposed.

The Conference reaffirmed its full solidarity with Iraq and its support for it in its legitimate defense of its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. It commended Iraq's experiences with peace initiatives and its acceptance of Security Council resolution 598 (1987) in the interest of arriving at an honorable, comprehensive, just and lasting resolution of the conflict.

The Conference renewed its condemnation and rejection of Iran's continued Occupation of Arab territory in Iraq, its continuation of the war, its failure to respond to Arab and international peace initiatives and the resolutions adopted by the United Nations and its refusal to comply with Security Council resolution 598 (1987).

The Conference called upon the international community to assume its responsibilities for the implementation of the above-mentioned resolution as an integral whole, in letter and in spirit, according to the sequence of its operative paragraphs. It called upon the Security Council to adopt firm measures to ensure Iran's compliance with this resolution, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter.

The Conference hailed with pride and admiration Arab Iraq's liberation of the Al-Faw and Shalamcheh region. It reaffirmed its full solidarity with Iraq in the: endeavor to liberate the other territories occupied by Iran, proceeding from its commitment to national responsibility and in affirmation of its resolve to protect: Arab national security and safeguard Arab territories.

Support for the Arab Gulf States

The Conference reviewed the threats arising from the continuation of the Iran-Iraq war, which had begun to affect the security and stability of some States Of the region, the State of Kuwait in particular. It reaffirmed the resolutions adopted by it at the Amman Extraordinary Summit Conference and expressed the determination of member States to support the Arab Gulf States in countering any external aggression. The Conference also condemned all forms of terrorism practiced by Iran against the Arab Gulf States, consisting of intervention in the internal affairs of those States and resort to acts of violence and sabotage affecting the internal security of some of the Arab Gulf States, particularly Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Organization of the pilgrimage to the Holy Kaaba

The Conference expressed its solidarity with and support for the measures taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in organizing the pilgrimage to the Holy Kaaba, as well as for the facilities and assistance which it provided to pilgrims. It also emphasized the need to respect the holy places, the rites of the pilgrimage, the security and safety of pilgrims and the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Condemnation of Israeli acts of aggression against Arab States

The Conference affirmed its belief that Arab national security was an indivisible whole and that any act of aggression or terrorism against the sovereignty of any member State constituted an act of aggression against the whole Arab nation. In this context, the Conference reiterated its condemnation of Israel's acts of aggression against Iraq with the intention of destroying that country's nuclear reactor, repeated aggression against the Republic of Tunisia by attacking the Palestine Liberation organization headquarters, assassination of the martyr Khalil al-Wazir and continued acts of aggression against innocent civilians in Lebanon.

Condemnation of United States aggression against Libya

The Conference also emphasized its condemnation of United States aggression against the great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and its support for the Jamahiriya in the face of constant threats to its security and safety. It expressed its support and backing for Libya's sovereignty over the Gulf of Surt, in accordance with international covenants.

Classification of Arab relations

After considering the challenges and threats facing the Arab nation and the need both to preserve the interests of the nation and its future generations and to protect the components of its national security, the Conference expressed satisfaction with the positive developments which had been noted in relations among Arab States and emphasized its determination to persist in its efforts to attain further reconciliation among all Arab States, in such a way as to strengthen relations among them, to consolidate joint Arab action and to support its institutions.

Condemnation of international terrorism

The Conference reaffirmed its condemnation of all forms and sources of international terrorism, and particularly organized State terrorism as practiced by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people and in the Arab world. The Conference considered international terrorism to be a violation of moral and humanitarian principles and a breach of international customs and covenants. It rejected attempts to equate terrorism with the legitimate national struggle waged by peoples for their liberation and independence.

Condemnation of racist practices

The Conference affirmed its condemnation of all forms of racist practices in South Africa, as well as of the racist alliance between the Zionist entity and the Pretoria régime. It also emphasized its full solidarity with the peoples of South Africa and Namibia and its support for the struggle of liberation movements in 1: southern Africa and the African front-line States against the Pretoria régime with a view to ending the system of racial discrimination and enabling the peoples of South Africa to recover their freedom, sovereignty and independence.

In addressing its greetings to the Organization of African Unity on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of its foundation, the Conference expressed its great appreciation of those African States and peoples which continued to provide their support and backing to just Arab causes, first and foremost among which was the question of Palestine. The Conference also emphasized its belief in the need to strengthen and develop Afro-Arab co-operation and to activate the organs and institutions responsible for such co-operation, in accordance with their shared objectives.

International détente

The Conference took note of the positive developments in international affairs and the emerging signs of détente, reduced tension and the solution of disputes and regional crises, and particularly the beginning of gradual nuclear disarmament. The Conference also expressed its hope both that such international detente would serve to strengthen the purposes and principles to which all peoples of the world aspired, and which had been confirmed by the non-aligned countries at their various conferences, and that it would be commensurate with the aspirations of peoples to freedom and enjoyment of the right to self-determination, in such a way as to guarantee their sovereignty and independence, while also contributing to international efforts to assist the developing countries in solving their economic and social problems and eliminating the deficiencies in the international economic system, whose dangerous negative repercussions were affecting the countries of the third world.

The Conference emphasized, in this connection, the need for international détente policies to include a just settlement of regional problems and the elimination of other centers of fighting, together with the declaration of regions such as the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean and others as nuclear-weapon-free zones.

Vote of thanks to the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria

The Conference expressed its great appreciation to His Excellency President Chadli Bendjedid, President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, for his initiative in calling for the Conference to be held and his noble efforts in promoting its successful outcome. It also praised the wise manner in which His Excellency presided over the meetings of the Conference, which were most effective in ensuring the success of its work and the achievement of significant results that would strengthen the uprising of the Palestinian people and promote the advance of joint Arab action.

The Conference expressed its profound thanks to the Government of Algeria for its generosity in hosting the Conference, its careful organization and thorough preparation. The Conference also expressed its sincerest feelings of admiration for the militant people of Algeria in their heroic struggle for freedom and independence and its gratitude for the hospitality and welcome extended to participating delegations.

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* A/43/50.

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