Palestinians seek political, financial support from Baghdad Arab
summit
Monday March 26, 2012 09:12:12 AM,
IANS
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Ramallah: The Palestinian leadership is looking
forward to gain declarations of full Arab political and financial
support for their cause in the Arab League annual summit due to be
held in Baghdad March 29, a senior Palestinian official said
Sunday.
Despite the concerns that the Arab summit this year will be more
involved in discussing the outcomes of the Arab revolutions, chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Xinhua that President
Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to chair the senior Palestinian
delegation that will attend the summit.
"We hope that the agenda of the summit will also tackle the
activation of the previous summits' decisions related to the
Palestinian cause, mainly the ones related to the stalled peace
process and to the ongoing Israeli policies that are expected to
escalate in the coming future," said Erekat.
He stressed that the Palestinian leadership has been always keen
to empower coordination "with all our Arab brothers in the Arab
world," adding "We are always looking forward to gain bigger
political and financial support in this "critical and difficult
stage" the Palestinian cause is passing through."
"On the tops of our demands from Baghdad summit is to back the
diplomatic efforts that aim at reinforcing the position of
Palestine in the map of the world's geography, through our
applying to the United Nations organizations to face the Israeli
stubbornness that blocks a new peace process," said Erekat.
However, other Palestinian leaders expressedless optimism towards
the decisions that Baghdad summit would come up with. Hana Amira,
an official in Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said the
Palestinians are not so optimistic that the summit would give them
what they need.
"It is obvious that there is no big optimism towards Baghdad
summit due to the recent dramatic developments in various Arab
countries and the consequences of the Arab revolutions, mainly in
Syria that would be heavily discussed during in the summit's
agenda," Amira told Xinhua.
He stressed that the Palestinians "are in need this time for a
greater Arab support because the Palestinians are passing through
a crucial situation and they need powerful political and financial
Arab support in order to be able to confront the Israeli
occupation and its policies."
"It is very important for the Palestinians to gain full Arab
support, mainly a political one in order to be able to go to the
United Nations organisations and gain full membership of the state
of Palestine, and this would certainly need string Arab pressure
on America and Israel," said Amira.
Meanwhile, prime minister of the care-taker Palestinian government
in the West Bank Salam Fayyad told reporters in Ramallah Saturday
that all what the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) had got of
Arab aid this year was $30 million only, that was paid by Qatar.
"The previous Arab summit had pledged $283 million to be paid to
the Palestinians in the year 2011," Fayyad said,
The permanent members of the Arab League Thursday met in Cairo to
prepare for the summit.
Ahmaed Ben Helli, deputy chief of the Arab League told a news
conference after the meeting that the Baghdad summit has ten basic
chapters to be discussed in the two-day meet, that includes the
situation in Syria, Yemen, the Palestinian cause and the
Arab-Israeli conflicts.
The last Arab summit, held in October 2010 in the Libyan town of
Sirte, called on Arab states to aid the PNA budget with $330
million, based on paying monthly around $55 million to support the
Palestinians.
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