Arab peace initiative reaffirmed, Riyadh Arab Summit – LAS letter (excerpts)

    Letter dated 23 April 2007 from the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

  Pursuant to Article 54 of the Charter of the United Nations, I have the honour to transmit herewith a letter dated 18 April 2007 addressed to you from Mr. Amre Moussa, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, regarding the outcome of the Arab summit held in Riyadh on 28 and 29 March 2007 (see annex).

  I should be grateful if you would arrange for the text of the present letter and its annex to be circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Yahya Mahmassani

Ambassador

    Annex to the letter dated 23 April 2007 from the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

[Original: Arabic]

  It is a pleasure for me to express to you my sincere appreciation for your attending and effectively contributing to the Arab summit held in Riyadh on 28 and 29 March 2007 and the discussions and meetings that took place in parallel with it.

  Within the framework of continued mutual consultation and coordination between our two organizations, I felt it would be useful to inform you of the main Arab positions and directions discernible in the Riyadh declaration. I should also like to apprise you of the decisions adopted by the summit regarding the evolving political and security conditions in the region as well as related issues, both regional and international, that are of mutual concern, as part of the ongoing discussion between us and in furtherance of our dialogue and exchange of views on such matters.

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 II.  The Palestinian question and the Arab-Israeli conflict

 1.   The Riyadh summit reaffirmed the need to adhere to the Arab peace initiative as adopted by the Beirut summit in 2002. It called on the Government of Israel and all Israelis to accept the initiative and seize the opportunity to resume the process of direct, earnest negotiations on all tracks. The summit charged the Arab Ministerial Committee created to deal with that initiative with continuing its efforts and establishing task forces to make the necessary contacts with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, States members of the Security Council, the Quartet and other parties concerned with the peace process, with a view to the resumption of the peace process, the garnering of support for the initiative and the start of earnest negotiations on the basis of the agreed terms of reference;

 2.   The summit also reaffirmed its full support for the Palestinian national unity Government and the refusal to cooperate with any aspect whatsoever of the embargo measures imposed on the Palestinian people; called on the international community to lift the embargo immediately, recognize that Government, cooperate with it without discrimination and resume the offering of assistance and financial and economic grants to it; and decided to continue to offer Arab financial support for the budget of the Palestinian National Authority in the amount of 55 million dollars monthly for a period of a year, starting 1 April 2007;

 3.   The summit denounced the Israeli excavation work beneath and in the area of Al-Aqsa Mosque and called on the international organizations and agencies concerned, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to shoulder their responsibility for preserving Islamic and Christian holy places in Al-Quds al-Sharif; reaffirmed its rejection of all Israeli measures aimed at the judaization and annexation of the city of Al-Quds; affirmed the illegality of the separation wall and the Israeli settlements within occupied Palestinian territory; called upon the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility towards the Palestinian people and send international observers to protect them against the persistent Israeli violations of their legitimate national rights; and demanded the speedy release of Palestinian prisoners, especially Palestinian women prisoners and children in Israeli prisons in accordance with Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) and other relevant United Nations resolutions;

 4.   The summit also reaffirmed the well-established Arab positions concerning support for Syria’s right to regain possession of the occupied Syrian Golan, rejected all measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities for the purpose of altering the legal, natural and demographic status of the Syrian Golan and deemed the continuation of that occupation an ongoing threat to peace and security in the region.

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