IRAN ACCUSES ARABS FOR "OUTRAGEOUS GENEROSITY" WITH ISRAEL
TEHRAN 29 Mar. (IPS) Iran slammed Friday the Saudi Arabia-initiated "Beirut Declaration" that offers full recognition to the Jewish State by all Arab governments against Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories in still occupy, accusing the Arabs of "outrageous generosity" for "offering 80 per cent of the Palestinian lands to the Israeli usurpers".
Speaking at the traditional Friday prayers, the influential Ayatollah Ali
Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, the Iranian Islamic regime’s number two man
termed the last proposals to Israel as one of the Arabs "most strange
decision".
The Summit, which ended Thursday in Beirut, endorsed unanimously a proposal put to the conference offering Jerusalem full reconnaissance and diplomatic relations in exchange of complete evacuation by Israel of all the Arab territories it still occupies, accepts the creation of a fully independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its Capital and a "just solution" to the right of the Palestinian refugees to return.
The offer, the best ever made to the Israelis, as it engages all Arab governments, was immediately welcomed by both the United States and the Eurpean Community, but was cold shouldered by Israel, saying the issue of the refugees was "vague" and making Jerusalem the capital of the Palestinian State is "out of question".
"We cannot accept the right of return. It would mean a situation where there are two Palestinian states," foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon told the French news agency Agence France Press.
Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani blasted Israeli rejecting the Arab initiative because it stressed the Palestinian refugees' right of return.
"The return of five million refugees to their homes is a key issue that must be underlined even more than the Arab lands", the influential former president said, describing the Israeli attitude as "arrogant".
As he was addressing some worshippers, Israel tanks were entering the compound of Mr. Yaser Arafat’s offices in Ramallah, in retaliation for the Wednesday’s bloody suicide operation in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv, killing and wounding more than 130 people and a Palestinian woman blowing up herself in a crowded market in the Jewish side of Jerusalem.
Israel’s Friday invasion of Mr. Arafat’s offices in Ramallah was actually condemned by the European Union, calling on Israel to immediately withdraw from all the areas under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
"Violence would bring more violence", observed a spokeswoman for EU’s Foreign Affairs and Security Minister Xavier Solana, adding that the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinians had no military solution".
Iran officially condemned the "ruthless massacre of the Palestinian civilians" by the racist-Zionist army and warned against probable further brutalities that would most probably be unleashed against the defenceless Palestinians by the "warmonger Zionists, a sample of which was observed on Friday morning in Ramallah".
"Occupation of Ramallah was a another clear sample of state terrorism, sponsored by Israel", said Mr. Hamid Reza Asefi, the senior spokesman of Iranian Foreign Affairs Ministry, expressing "sorrow" over the silence observed by international communities and powerful countries towards such moves by Israel, asking the U.N. and other world forums to adopt immediate measures aimed at bringing an end to the continuous massacre of the Palestinian civilians by the Israel army.
"Israel also refuses to withdraw from territories that it has been occupying since 1967 which is only one fifth of Palestinian lands and this make the situation very difficult", the former president said.
"If you are that generous to give Israel 80 per cent of Palestine, why then you after the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf, if not to turn them into advanced American military bases?" he noted sarcastically, referring to the Arabs support for the United Arab Emirate’s claim on Abu Musa and the Lesser and Bigger Tunbs islands, situated strategically at the entrance of the waterway.
The backing of the claims was immediately rejected by Iran, stressing that the islands "are integral part of Iranian territory and would never be separated".
"The same one who does not want an anti-Israeli front be created among Arabs gives priority to struggle against Iran", the Chairman of the Assembly for Discerning the State’s Interests (ADIS), an advisory body for the leader of the Islamic Republic added.
Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani also criticised those among Arab leaders who refused to take part at the Summit. "This is a grave shame that some Arab leaders refused to show up at a time that one of the Muslim’s most vital issues are at stake", he noted.
Iran's Foreign Affairs Minister Kamal Kharrazi Thursday also said the Arab League initiative for peace was "the most generous peace offer" Israel would get, the official new agency IRNA news agency reported.
The peace offer is the "most generous peace initiative by Arab states and in its most optimistic sense, this plan is the repetition of past UN resolutions", Kharrazi said.
"Israel's policy has been the continuation of massacre, occupation of Arab lands including holy al-Qods (Jerusalem) and humiliating Palestinians particularly the Palestinian refugees", Kharrazi added.
Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani also used the occasion to criticise the United States for both what he described as Washington’s policy aimed at "eradicating Islam in the world" and its menaces of using nuclear weapons against some "rogue regimes", including that of Iran, in the one hand and on the other, Iranians who call for a "democratic, secular system instead of the present theocracy". ENDS IRAN ACCUSING ARABS 29302