2002 Arab League summit

Arab League summit
Host country	Lebanon
Date	March 28, 2002 (2002-03-28)
Cities	Beirut

The Beirut Summit (also known as the Arab Summit Conference) was a meeting of the Arab League in Beirut, Lebanon in March 2002 to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. At the time Yassar Arafat, the leader of Palestine, was under house-arrest in his Ramallah compound. The Israeli forces confined him and prevented him from attending the Beirut Summit. The meeting became especially noteworthy for the adoption, by the Arab states attending, of a proposal offering a comprehensive peace between the Arab countries and Israel, called the Arab Peace Initiative.

Arab Peace Initiative

Main article: Arab Peace Initiative

The Arab Peace Initiative ^[1] was floated by then acting Saudi regent Crown Prince Abdullah as a potential solution to both the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It was published on March 28, 2002, during the meeting of the Arab League at the Beirut Summit, and achieved the unanimous consent of all members of the Arab League.

Considered a progressive proposal , it calls for the state of Israel to withdraw its forces from all the Occupied Territories, including the Golan Heights, to recognize "an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as a "just solution" for the Palestinian refugees. In exchange the Arab states affirmed that they would recognize the state of Israel, consider the Arab-Israeli conflict over and establish "normal relations" with Israel.

The initiative is based upon:

The principle of Land for peace
The conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties

The proposal, from Saudi Arabia, offered Israel recognition by the Arab countries, including into peace agreements and normalisation of relations if Israel would:

withdraw from all territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war,
provide a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem, and
recognize the establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip

The goals of the initiative are:

Full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967
Implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions 242 and 338.
The establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital
A just solution to the Palestinian Refugee problem, to be agreed upon in accordance with section 11 of UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
The normalization of relations in the context of a comprehensive peace

Jordan's foreign minister stated: The Arab initiative put forth at the Beirut Summit in March offers comprehensive peace in the region based on the internationally recognized formulation of "land for peace" - a return to June 4, 1967, borders in exchange for normal relations and a collective peace treaty.

In response, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres welcomed it and said: "... the details of every peace plan must be discussed directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and to make this possible, the Palestinian Authority must put an end to terror, the horrifying expression of which we witnessed just last night in Netanya," ^[2] referring to Netanya suicide attack perpetrated on previous evening which the Beirut Summit has failed to address. Many in the Israel camp argue that this proposal carries a lot less weight coming after the Palestinian Authority rejected Ehud Barak's offer at Camp David.

The somewhat obscure 4th section was inserted at Lebanese insistence and reflects its concern that the settlement of the refugee problem not be at what it considers the expense of Lebanon and its "demographic balance."

Lebanon and Syria campaigned for the inclusion of a reference to United Nations Resolution 194, which emphasizes the Palestinian right of return to Israel. A compromise was eventually reached, citing the resolution but stating that the League would support any agreement between Israel and Palestinians on the issue.

Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy and treaties

References

External links

Arab League summits

1964–1979	1964 Cairo / Alexandria 1965 Casablanca 1967 Khartoum 1969 Rabat 1970 Cairo 1973 Algiers 1974 Rabat 1976 Riyadh / Cairo 1978 Baghdad 1979 Tunis

1980–1999	1980 Amman 1982 Fes 1985 Casablanca 1987 Amman 1988 Algiers 1989 Casablanca 1990 Baghdad / Cairo 1996 Cairo

2000–2019	2000 Cairo 2001 Amman 2002 Beirut 2003 Sharm el-Sheikh 2004 Tunis 2005 Algiers 2006 Khartoum 2007 Riyadh 2008 Damascus 2009 Doha 2010 Sirte 2012 Baghdad 2013 Doha

Italics indicate extraordinary meetings.

Diplomacy and peace proposals in the Arab–Israeli conflict

To 1948	1914 Damascus Protocol 1915 McMahon–Hussein Correspondence 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement 1917 Balfour Declaration 1918 Declaration to the Seven / Anglo-French Declaration 1919 Faisal–Weizmann Agreement 1920 San Remo conference 1922 Churchill White Paper 1937 Peel Commission 1939 White Paper 1947 UN Partition Plan 1948 American trusteeship proposal

1948–91	1948 UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 194 1949 Armistice agreements / Lausanne Conference 1950 Tripartite Declaration 1964 Palestinian National Covenant 1967 Khartoum Resolution / UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 242 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 / UNSC Resolution 339 1974 Israel–Syria disengagement agreement / UNSC Resolution 350 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 / Camp David Accords 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 / Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty / UNSC Resolution 452 1980 UNSC Resolution 478 1981 UNSC Resolution 497 1983 Israel–Lebanon agreement

1991–present	1991 Madrid Conference 1993 Oslo Accords 1994 Gaza–Jericho Agreement / Israel–Jordan peace treaty 1995 Beilin-Abu Mazen agreement 1998 Wye River Memorandum 1999 Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum 2000 Camp David Summit / Clinton Parameters 2001 Taba Summit 2002 Beirut Summit and peace initiative / Road map 2003 Geneva Initiative 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 / UNSC Resolution 1566 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 / Sharm el-Sheikh Summit / Israeli disengagement from Gaza / Agreement on Movement and Access 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701 2007 Annapolis Conference 2010 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks 2013 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks

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