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March 29th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
While regional officials have pushed to focus on a wide variety of issues,
ranging from the Arab-Israel conflict to jump-starting the bloc’s economies,
the summit was focused on Syria, where monitors say nearly 10,000 people
have died in a year-long revolt against Assad’s rule.
In his speech opening the summit, Ban called for Syrian authorities to
implement UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan and for an end to
violence ravaging the country.
“It is essential that President Assad put those commitments into
immediate effect. The world is waiting for commitments to be translated into
action. The key here is implementation. There is no time to waste,” he
said.
“We reiterate our call for a peaceful solution to meet the expectations
of the Syrian people without any foreign interference,” Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani meanwhile told the summit.
Arab leaders have said they will at the summit call for talks between the
Syrian government and opposition based on a six-point peace plan proposed by
Annan, according to a draft copy of the Baghdad Declaration obtained by AFP.
The region’s leaders “denounce the violence, murder and bloodshed, and
are in favour of a political solution via national dialogue,” said the
document, to be issued after the summit.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Wednesday that the summit would
steer clear of strong moves advocated by Qatar and Saudi Arabia to resolve
the Syria crisis.
“The Arab League initiative is clear and did not demand that Bashar step
down, Zebari said after a ministerial meeting. “We (foreign ministers)
also did not ask for that and the forthcoming decision will not go in this
direction.”
Asked whether the arming of Syrian rebels was raised, Zebari said: “We
did not discuss this subject at all.”
The two issues have pitted countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia that have
called for Assad to leave and advocated sending arms to rebel groups against
those pushing for political reconciliation, such as Iraq.
Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said in an interview with Al-Jazeera
that he would have wanted the level of representation to be higher “but
we will sit with them in the future and talk.” He did not elaborate.
In all, nine visiting regional leaders attended the summit from the 22-member
Arab League. Syria, which has been suspended from the pan-Arab body, was not
invited.
Among them was the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who was on
the first visit by a Kuwaiti head of state in more than 20 years.
Iraq has deployed 100,000 security forces in an effort to prevent attacks on
the summit, and officials have closed down swathes of roads and mobile
networks and shut down airspace.
Despite the razor-tight security operation that has effectively shut down
Baghdad, a mortar round struck near the Iranian embassy on the outskirts of
the heavily-fortified Green Zone where the summit was being opened, a police
official said, adding that the blast did not cause any casualties but
damaged the embassy.
Smoke could be seen rising from the site, and security forces members,
military vehicles and firefighters raced to the scene of the blast, an AFP
journalist said.
The Honein jihadist forum has included several recent messages from users
threatening attacks on the Arab summit, using mortar shells as well as with
suicide bombers.
A week ago, al-Qaeda-claimed attacks nationwide killed 50 people, including
three in a car bombing opposite the foreign ministry, and on Tuesday, a
suicide bomber at a police checkpoint in west Baghdad killed one policeman
and wounded two others.
Egypt’s Arab League ambassador, Afifi Abdel Wahab, told journalists that the
pan-Arab body’s next summit will be held in the Qatari capital Doha.
Source: AFP
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