Report By Lamya Tawfik, IOL Staff Writer

CAIRO, March 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Nothing new came out of the leaked out draft resolultion for the Arab summit, said an Egyptian political expert.

Speaking to Islam Online, Ahmed Taha Al-Nakr, an expert in foreign relations in the Egyptian daily Al-Akhbar, said, “We have to view the draft resolution that leaked out as just that ‘a leaked out’ document and nothing more. It’s not a draft resolution until it is announced by the summit.”

However, it is a reflection of what the final draft resolution, which the Beirut summit will release and there is no addition to previous summits’ drafts except for the fact that it also includes the Saudi initiative, said Al-Nakr.

Al Nakr was referring to a copy of the summit's draft resolution, which was published on news agencies Sunday.

The draft, sent to the Palestinian leadership by the Arab League, calls for an Israeli withdrawal from all Arab areas occupied since June 1967, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights, and territories still occupied in south Lebanon, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

It also calls for a just and fair solution for Palestinian refugees, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 194, the document said.

The Arab League will call for an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, under Security Council Resolution 1397, adopted earlier this month.

In return for Israeli acceptance of these conditions, Arab leaders would formulate a treaty with Israel bringing about an end to the Middle East conflict, it said.

The summit in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday and Thursday will focus on Saudi proposals for normal relations with Israel in return for a total Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands seized in the 1967 war.

Al Nakr added that it is obvious that there is a back-down on the rights for the refugees to return, as the draft resolution only called for a just and fair solution for Palestinian refugees, in line with U.N. Security Council Resolution 194 and did not specify their return.

This, however, is not the first time for the draft resolution for the summit to be leaked. “What was strange the last time, was that it was the first time for an Arab leader (Libya’s Ghaddafi) to announce it on television. However, this has happened before,” said Al-Nakr.

Al-Nakr added that the Saudi Peace Initiative, according to many western publications, was drafted in co-ordination between Riyadh and Washington and that it also ignored the refugee problem.

“There are nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees all around the world and their issue must be tackled and it is Israel’s worst nightmare,” said Al Nakr.

With regards to Palestinian President’s Yasser Arafat not attending the meeting, Al Nakr said that it is better for him not to attend because his place is among his people in Ramallah. “If Arafat is to attend the meeting he will have to offer many concessions to Israel; otherwise they will neither allow him to attend or to even come back,” he added.

Arafat’s presence in the summit, he added, is not important, what is really important is the Arab countries stance. “They need to support the Intifada with money and with weapons because the Israeli war-machine is eradicating the Palestininan people merciliessy in a way that is unprecedented and more barbaric than the Nazi Holocaust,” he said.

“The real peace process starts when the Palestinians have received all their rights,” he said.

The Security Council Resolution 1397 which was adopted earlier this month is a political maneuver to pacify the Arabs as the United States prepares to strike Iraq.

“If the United States is really serious then it should put pressure on Sharon to stop his actions.”

With regards to why the draft resolution ignored the strikes on Iraq and did not reject them, Al Nakr said that the Arab leaders felt that the message that they gave Cheney while he was on tour was sufficient. “They probably felt that it was unnecessary to include it, since the U.S. announced recently that the strikes are not emminent and they felt that there was no reason to provoke the United States,” Al Nakr said.

He added that there would not be an Arabic response even if the U.S. strikes Iraq. “If there would be an Arabic Response, we would have seen it in Palestine,” he added.