By
The Associated Press
AMMAN, Jordan - One after another, Arab heads of state landed in Jordan yesterday as their aides struggled behind closed doors to reach consensus on the divisive question of what to do about Iraq.
Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the main issues on the agenda of an Arab summit that opens today in Amman, the first regular Arab League summit in 10 years.
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam told Jordan's Petra news agency yesterday that many points of contention had been settled.
The ministers ended two days of talks late Sunday with draft proposals on regional issues and a draft communique, which will be the basis of discussion at the summit. The communique omitted reference to the Iraq issue, the only unresolved point.
Another Arab diplomat involved in the talks, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iraq appears close to accepting the four-point proposal. He said it would call for Iraq as well as Kuwait to respect regional security and each others' sovereignty; the lifting of commercial sanctions against Iraq; swift discussion of the status of prisoners of war; and resuming civilian flights to Baghdad.
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told reporters in Amman yesterday that the Iraqi request for the lifting of sanctions is based on Arab League and U.N. charters.
"Our stand is logical, just and balanced and there is no extremism or exaggeration in it," he said.
The Arab League has been unable to hold regular summits since its members split over Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, which set off the 1991 Gulf War. Foreign ministers of its member countries agreed last October to try to resume annual meetings, starting with this Amman meeting.
Around the Middle East, many Arabs were closely watching the Palestinian issue, which also was high on the agenda in the wake of six months of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
At a Yemen rally held to express support for the Palestinians, Parliament Speaker Sheik Abdullah al-Ahmar said Arab and Muslim countries' relations with other states should be based on those states' positions toward the Palestinian issue.
In Jordan, dozens of college students demonstrated at their campuses, demanding that the summit give full-fledged support to both the Palestinians and the Iraqis. In Syria, Syrian and Arab intellectuals staged a sit-in before the U.N. headquarters in Damascus urging decisions in favor of the Palestinians.
The English-language Syria Times demanded that the Arab leaders work out a strategy "to stop the Israeli aggressive and expansionist polices in the occupied Palestinian territories."
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres urged Arab leaders convening in Jordan to take a balanced approach to the Mideast conflict, and not merely issue a blanket denunciation of Israel as has happened at previous Arab summits.
"I would like to see the Arab summit not remain one-sided rhetorically but refer to peace in pragmatic terms," Peres said.
The U.N. Security Council resumed talks yesterday on a Palestinian request for U.N. observers to help stop six months of bloodshed, a request Israel opposes. The United States, which could veto any resolution, supports Israel on the question. The Security Council, which has held days of meetings on the issue, is under pressure to make a decision before the Arab summit convenes.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Jordan yesterday to attend the summit, highlighting the international significance of the meeting.
