The Committee of Arab Peace Initiative Concludes Meeting

Doha, December 09 (QNA) - The Committee of Arab Peace Initiative, at its Ministerial Meeting under HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, called on the UN security Council to expedite the decision on Palestine's request for getting full UN membership. The meeting was attended by the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Arab League Secretary General Nabil Al-Arabi and the heads of the committee's member states delegations in addition to the Foreign Ministers of UAE, Oman and Kuwait. At the conclusion, the committee issued a communique, emphasizing the immediate implementation of Baghdad Summit decision No 551 dated 29/march/2012 which requires Arab donors to provide $100 million per month to Palestine. At the meeting Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas delivered a presentation on the situation and latest developments in his country, highlighting the importance of the national reconciliation and shedding light on upgrading Palestine's status in UN, and the subsequent decisions of the Israeli government intensifying settlement activity, especially in occupied East Jerusalem and its environs, in addition to blocking the Palestinian people's funds , and the continuation of American aid's freezing by the US Congress. The committee, afterwards, conducted revision and evaluation to the terms of reference of the peace process and its mechanisms, including the Arab peace initiative and the role of the Quartet committee. It also evaluated the new situation created by upgrading Palestine's UN status to non-member observer state. At the end of the meeting, the committee thanked all the states that voted in favor of upgrading the status of Palestine to a non-member state, recognizing its pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital. The committee urged the UN Security Council to look into Palestine's bid to gain a full membership status. It also called upon states that are yet to recognize the state of Palestine to do so at the earliest opportunity. The conferees also urged the international community, foremost the UN Security Council, to implement the council s resolutions towards the occupied State of Palestine, to end the Israeli occupation of all Arab land and to ensure Israel s withdrawal to the pre-June 4 1967 borders. The committee agreed to carry out the Baghdad Summit's resolution number 551 of 29/3/2012 to allocate $100 million monthly for the Palestinians, after the Israeli occupation authorities froze revenues of Palestinian taxes and the US Congress withheld US aid money. The Palestinian Authority needs $240 million per month to cater to the needs of the Palestinian people in the West bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza strip. The committee said that upgrading Palestine s status at the UN and the international community s recognition as such of the State of Palestine under occupation makes it imperative upon the international community to end the occupation, and to call for launching negotiations based on the UN Security Council Resolutions 242 of 1967 and 338 of 1973 both resolutions demand Israel to withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, including East Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Palestine - within a timetable to be agreed, and ensuring a halt to all Israeli settlement activities and release of Palestinian and Arab prisoners. The committee called for holding the Paris 2 conference at the ministerial level , in coordination with the State of Palestine, to support the Palestinian people in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, and to rebuild the Gaza Strip, as soon as possible. Furthermore, the committee decided to form an Arab team to be headed by HE Qatar s Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, with the participation of willing countries, in order to conduct negotiations next month with the UN Security Council and with the governments of the US, Russia , China as well as the EU to agree on a mechanism for implementing the international community s obligations towards the State of Palestine within a timetable, and entrusting the UN Secretary General to prepare the necessary executive steps. The committee decided to back the efforts of the State of Palestine to accede as full member to special international agencies and to gain membership of international conventions and protocols. The conferees reiterated that Jewish settlement, in all its forms, is a flagrant infringement upon international law and the 4th Geneva Convention, and that Israel s new settlement projects in East Jerusalem and its environs amount to war crimes and means killing the two-stat solution, the consequences of which fall solely upon the Israeli government. The committee denounced Israel s continued incarceration of thousands of Arab and Palestinian prisoners in a stark violation of international law, especially the Geneva Conventions Nos three and four, underlining the necessity of setting free all those prisoners, foremost those held before the year 1994. It welcomed Iraq s holding of the prisoners conference from Dec 10 to 12 , 2012. The conferees called for expediting the realization of national Palestinian conciliation on the basis of the agreements of Cairo and Doha and acknowledging this as the major pillar of the occupied State of Palestine -whose contiguity has been emphasized by the international community (the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip)- under the auspices of Egypt and the support of the Arab League. The committee thanked the member countries which fulfilled their financial pledges to the Palestinian Authority, and urged other countries to make good on their commitments as soon as possible in order to help the Palestinian Authority encounter Israel s occupation activities and surmount the current strangulating financial crisis. The committee called for a follow up of the Arab League s ministerial resolution no 7513 of Sept 5 2012 which called for the setting up of an independent, neutral commission at the UN level to investigate the circumstances of the death of the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat , in the light of the reports of Russian, French and Swiss experts who took samples of the remains of Arafat. (QNA)