2009-01-20 20:13:56  

    KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Arab leaders concluded their first economic summit here Tuesday with an adoption of resolutions highlighting the importance of reconstruction efforts in the war-battered Gaza Strip and condemning anew the Israeli aggression on the Palestinian territory.

    The Arab leaders agreed to rebuild Gaza through a rehabilitation and construction program in coordination with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), said the resolutions announced by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa at the end of the two-day summit meeting.

    According to the resolutions, the Arab leaders called for continuing humanitarian assistance to Gazans suffering from three weeks of massive Israeli offensive, providing financial and technical support for the rehabilitation of infrastructure, health services, and improving Palestinians' living standards in the strip.

    The leaders attending the summit were expected to map out practical steps to stabilize the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and devote aid to the reconstruction of the besieged coastal enclave.

    But the final resolutions stopped short of mentioning a highly-expected Arab fund worth 2 billion U.S. dollars for the post-war reconstruction process of the Palestinian enclave.

    Meanwhile, Moussa said Arab foreign ministers held a closed-door meeting and studied the dangerous situation resulted from the Israeli aggression on Gaza, which has killed more than 1,300 Palestinians.

    The top diplomats condemned the Israeli atrocious assault, demanded an immediate halt of the military operations and swift withdrawal of the Israeli forces from Gaza, he added.

    The two-day summit had been designed to be a chance for Arab leaders to sidestep political divisions and focus on economic matters.

    Due to the Israeli military offensive on the besieged Palestinian enclave that began on Dec. 27, the Gaza situation had dominated the economic meeting, attended by 17 Arab heads of state and the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Editor: Xiong

Arab leaders patch up ties over Gaza

2009-01-20 19:03:09  

·Leaders of four Arab states and Kuwait have held talks in a bid to heal rifts. ·Rreconciliation has been achieved between Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria. ·Arab countries are at odds over how to address the Gaza crisis.

    KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Leaders of four Arab states and Kuwait, host of the first Arab economic summit, have held talks here in a bid to heal rifts exposed by Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip, local media reported on Tuesday.

    Leaders of Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Kuwait held a meeting at the residence of Saudi King Abdullah following the opening session of the Arab economic summit in Kuwait City on Monday, a Kuwaiti source was quoted by daily Kuwait Times as saying.

    The efforts to heal the rifts were launched by Kuwait with the help of other Arab nations in the Gulf, said the unidentified Kuwaiti source.

    Meanwhile, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani told the Doha-based satellite television Al-Jazeera that reconciliation has been achieved between Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria, without giving any details of the deal.

    Arab countries are at odds over how to address the Gaza crisis, with some nations calling for strong action while others prefer a more moderate approach.

    The split came into the spotlight when Egypt and Saudi Arabia, close allies in the region with the United States, shunned an emergency summit called by Doha. Qatar, the only Gulf Arab state with ties to Israel, hastily hosted an emergency summit on Friday though it did not secure the quorum of two thirds of Arab League (AL) members required for a formal Arab summit.

    A day before the Doha summit, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz even assembled leaders of six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries for an emergency summit in Riyadh in a move seen to pre-empt Qatar's bid, but in vain.

    During Monday's inauguration session of the Kuwait summit, the Arab leaders conceded that division exists in the Arab world and called for unity in face of the Gaza crisis and other serious challenges.

Arab FMs unable to reach unified stance on Gaza

2009-01-20 18:36:38  

    KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) --

Arab foreign ministers failed to reach a common stance on Gaza during a closed-door session Tuesday on the sidelines of the First Arab Economic Summit, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.

    Zebari told the Kuwait Television that the foreign ministers were "regrettably" unable to reach a common stance due to shortage of time "and the uncompromising stances taken by some countries," the Kuwait official news agency KUNA reported.

    He said that some countries needed to make "compromises" in order to reach unified stance, adding that efforts would continue after the Arab Economic Summit to reach this unified position, said the report.

    Arab leaders attending the summit have urged to map out practical steps to stabilize the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and devote aid to the reconstruction of the besieged coastal enclave that had been under Israeli onslaught for three weeks.

    The first Arab economic summit convened in the Kuwaiti capital here Monday, centering on the situation in the Gaza Strip and calling for unity in the Arab world to resolve the Gaza crisis.

    The high-level economic meeting was attended by 17 heads of state of the 22-member Arab League (AL), together with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, with a slogan of "In Solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza."

Editor: Xiong

Backgrounder: Basic facts about 1st Arab Economic, Development and Social Summit

2009-01-19 18:30:57  

    KUWAIT CITY, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) --

The first Arab Economic, Social and Development Summit will open in the Kuwait City on Monday. The following are the basic facts about the summit.

    The two-day summit is the first for the 22-member Arab League to exclusively devote to Arab economic, development and social matters. Seventeen heads of state have confirmed to attend the summit, together with politicians, businessmen and intellectuals from all the 22 member states of the Arab League. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will also be present at the summit.

    The summit, under preparation for nearly two years, was decided by a resolution issued at the annual Arab Summit in Riyadh in March 2007, taken upon by the joint initiative of Kuwait and Egypt, as Arab leaders found that Arab national security has been affected by the economic and social underdevelopment.

    The summit is set to work on promoting Arab action in the economic, social and development sectors, among which inter-Arab trade, infrastructure, health, education, poverty and unemployment are determined as priorities. In face of the ongoing global financial crisis, the summit will also discuss ways to reduce the negative influence of the crisis which has led to the sharp fall of oil prices and major revenue for many Arab nations.

    The summit will select from more than 400 projects and proposals the secretariat has received those that can benefit all the Arab nations, to improve power linkage, roads and railways networks, food security, health and education in the Arab world. In an effort to promote the Arab economic integration, an agreement on the Arab Customs Union plan is likely to be reached.

    Following the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, the Gaza situation is believed to top the agenda of the summit. Arab leaders are expected to review the latest developments in the impoverished enclave, and to find a solution to end the Gaza conflicts, in which more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed and over 5,500 wounded since the beginning of the Israeli attacks on Dec. 27, 2008.

    At an emergency meeting on Saturday, Arab foreign ministers agreed on an urgent plan to save the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip based on political, economic and humanitarian aspects. Reports said the plan will be put forward to the upcoming summit for approval.

Editor: Zhang Xiang