KUWAIT: Arab leaders agreed at a summit on Tuesday to help rebuild the battered Gaza Strip, but differences persisted over finding a united stance on the three-week Israeli offensive that killed more than 1,300 people.
The conflict in Gaza underscored the Arab divide between those allied to Egypt and Saudi Arabia on one side, and those allied to Syria and Qatar on the other.
Arab leaders condemned Israel s attack and demanded its immediate withdrawal from Gaza in the final statement read by Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa. It said Israel should punish those who committed war crimes during the offensive.
The summit is holding Israel legally responsible for war crimes it committed and for taking the necessary action to pursue those who committed the crimes, Moussa said.
Differences over the strength of the wording on Gaza in the declaration delayed the summit s concluding session.
Last week, clusters of leaders met at different meetings to formulate resolutions, but neither set was included in the final declaration.
A meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait on Friday prepared a set of resolutions, including a pledge of support for the Palestinian Authority headed by President Mahmoud Abbas.
But another meeting in Doha took a much stronger line, calling on Arab countries to review their ties with Israel and to suspend a 2002 Arab peace initiative.
The 2002 peace initiative offered Israel normal relations in return for full withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East War and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
King Abdullah said on Monday the initiative was still on the table, but that Israel should not expect it to stay forever.
On Monday, Abbas, who controls the West Bank but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007, called for reconciliation and the formation of a national unity government to pave the way for presidential and parliamentary elections.
Abbas is backed by the West but seen as weak by leaders of some Arab states such as Syria.
Aid and energy
The final declaration omitted detail on the size of a fund to rebuild Gaza. Foreign ministers meeting on Friday had adopted a resolution to establish a fund of up to $2 billion fund that leaders were expected to back. Saudi Arabia committed $1 billion towards reconstruction on Monday.
The declaration focused on increased economic cooperation and inter-regional investment, with the emphasis on energy.
It called on Arab states to work together to tackle the impact of the global financial crisis on the region and to take part in global efforts to restore financial stability. The declaration urged financial institutions to facilitate credit.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick told Arab leaders in a speech to the summit on Monday that the Arab world must be a part of the global response to the crisis. Western governments have also asked cash-rich Arab oil exporters to contribute to efforts to ease the crisis.
Arab central bankers and finance ministers meeting ahead of the summit last week urged their governments to keep state spending high to shore up domestic economies amid a collapse in oil prices and recession in the industrialized world.
The slump in oil prices has slowed a phase of rapid regional growth, battered investor confidence and strained budgets.
Arab leaders called for cooperation in the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and the expansion of regional power grids and natural gas networks.
Economic integration
The leaders also approved a number of economic resolutions, including launching an Arab customs union in 2010, a pan-Arab power grid and a rail network project.
The Kuwait Declaration called for adopting monetary and fiscal policies to enable Arab nations to face the consequences of the global financial crisis.
The leaders also announced the establishment of the Arab Development Fund with capital of $2 billion to provide loans and assistance for Arab joint projects.
The declaration urged necessary steps to uplift the living standards of Arab citizens and to give priority to promoting inter-Arab investments.
The Arab League, comprising 22 member states, estimates Arab capital invested at home is less than 20 percent of funds invested by Arab nations and businessmen in the United States and Europe.
Despite progress made by some Arab nations, the Arab world is still facing many challenges… especially poverty, unemployment, poor inter-Arab trade and migration of Arab capital and brains, the declaration said.
It also called for strengthening the role of Arab funds and financial institutions by boosting their resources and easing restrictions on providing loans.
The customs union will be completed in 2015 as a prelude to establishing an Arab common market in 2020, according to one resolution.
Arab countries launched the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area about three years ago but it did little to boost commerce among members states, which remained at just between 10 percent and 12 percent of total Arab trade.
The summit also approved a resolution calling for measures that would halve the regional unemployment rate, which topped 14 percent last year, in the period between 2010 and 2020.
The leaders approved another resolution calling for the implementation of an Arab program for the reduction of poverty, which exceeds 40 percent in at least seven Arab nations.
They also approved a resolution calling for improved water security, one of the most acute problems facing the Arab world, where the desert makes up 68 percent of its area.
Although the Arab world occupies 10 percent of the world s land and has five percent of the its population, its water resources are just a meager 0.59 percent of the world s, according to the Arab League. -Additional reporting by AFP.
