Peace mere illusion without reconciliation, says Al Assad

Doha: With the participation of the majority of Arab leaders, the Arab summit opened in the Qatari capital on Monday with calls for Arab reconciliation and the suspension of the peace initiative with Israel.

But the absence of Hosni Mubarak, the president of the most populous Arab country, Egypt, threatens to undermine efforts to achieve Arab reconciliation - a goal stressed once more by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad at the opening session.

"It is natural," Al Assad said, "that reconciliation is the most important subject at this stage as it is the foundation for the success or failure of any decision we take in any area."

"In the absence of solidarity, or when solidarity is weakened, any agreement or decision remains a mere illusion with no possibility of implementation," Al Assad said.

He then turned to the subject of Palestine, with Israel's right-wing Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu preparing to present his government.

"We Arabs, since we offered the Arab initiative, do not have a real partner in the peace process.

"This [incoming Israeli] government represents the views of those who voted it in... It shows that this [Israeli] society is not ready for peace," he said.

Given that, the Syrian president proposed "suspending the Arab initiative at the Doha summit as a natural reaction to Israel's indifference to peace, which culminated in its aggression in Gaza".

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that peace talks with Israel would be pointless if colonies continued to be created and called on Israel to accept the Arab peace plan of 2002.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the incoming Israeli government to freeze the creation of colonies, cease unilateral actions in Occupied Jerusalem and ease conditions in Gaza.

"The new Israeli government must allow people and goods to move [into Gaza]. It must freeze settlements, cease unilateral actions in Jerusalem and continue negotiations," Ban said, while praising an Arab peace offer.

Ban said residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip were suffering and that the situation at the crossing points was "intolerable."

Ban also urged Arab states to support a Palestinian reconciliation under president Abbas, and to help in achieving a lasting ceasefire in Gaza.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, defying an international arrest warrant by participating in the summit, urged Arab leaders to strongly reject his indictment.

Al Bashir already enjoys strong backing from Arab countries, who have repeatedly denounced the arrest warrant issued on March 4 by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Darfur.

Addressing the summit, Al Bashir called on fellow leaders to issue "strong and clear decisions rejecting this decision, and demanding those who fabricated it to annul it".

Al Assad, whose country yesterday passed the presidency of the Arab League summit to Qatar, echoed calls to support Al Bashir against the ICC.

"We are called upon today, not [just] to criticise the warrant [which]... we are all agreed is politicised, but to reject it categorically," Al Assad said.

"[We should] express absolute support for Sudan at this stage of the confrontation in order to save it," he told the Arab heads of states.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also called for the cancellation of the arrest warrant.

Moussa also called for "regional nuclear cooperation" that would lead to the development of peaceful projects.

- With inputs from agencies