Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Amr Moussa hold joint press conference

Cairo, January 01, SPA -- Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi Foreign
Minister, and Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary General, held here
yesterday a joint press conference following the conclusion of the
meeting of Arab Foreign Ministers in Cairo last night which was held
to discuss Israeli aggression on Gaza.

In his speech during the joint press conference, the Saudi Foreign
Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, who is also the Chairman of the
current session of Arab Foreign Ministers Council, said that the
Council discussed at length the fierce Israeli aggression against
Gaza Strip, pointing out that the deliberations of the extraordinary
meeting of Arab Ministers witnessed serious concern and strong
discontent on the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip which resulted in
hundreds of deaths and more than a thousand injured and contributed
to the spread of mass destruction and horror.

Prince Saud also said that the Council considered this Israeli attack
as an attack against not only Gaza Strip but also against all
Palestinian citizens. Such attack can not be justified in any way.

Prince Saud said the Council demanded an immediate end to the Israeli
aggression on Gaza Strip and called on the UN Security Council to
convene immediately to issue an international resolution to stop
fighting, protect the Palestinian people and deploy international
observers to ensure the implementation of the cease-fire resolution.

Prince Saud noted that the council reviewed the deep human tragedy of
the Palestinian people under the Israeli aggression and the existing
efforts to overcome the ordeal, stressing that the Council emphasized
the importance of continuing these efforts, providing the
Palestinians with their needs of food and medicine urgently through
all crossings, and calling on Arab and international states and
institutions to participate in the ongoing relief efforts for the
Palestinians.


He affirmed the rejection of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers of
all attempts to infringe on or bid over the Egyptian role in the
Palestinian issue, pointing out that the Arab foreign ministers
valued the Egyptian role in serving the Palestinian cause and the
Palestinian people.

He said that the Arab foreign ministers appreciated the prompt
initiative of Egyptian President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak to open Rafah
crossing to receive the injured and to facilitate the entry of Arab
aid to Gaza Strip, also valuing the Egyptian efforts to coordinate
and ensure the entry of humanitarian aid to brothers in Gaza Strip.

Prince Saud al-Faisal, the current chairman of the Council of Arab
Foreign Ministers, pointed to the Council's continued support for
Egyptian efforts to resume the Palestinian national reconciliation
process until the end of the division, noting that the council called
on all Palestinian parties to positively respond to Egyptian efforts
to end the division.

Then Prince Saud and Moussa replied the questions of journalists.

Prince Saud called for the need for holding a meeting of the Supreme
Council for Arab Countries Defense to work on protecting Arab
interests and build integrated Arab defense in all air, sea and land
sectors as well as protecting Arabs from the adventures that have
become a plight against the Arab world as a result of urgency to
enter battles for which there was no preparation.

Prince Saud also said that the convening of the Council's meeting has
taken a long time and it should be held, pointing out that such a
matter is included under the ongoing reforms in Arab League resulting
from the resolutions of the recent summit.

Prince Saud said that when the Joint Arab Defense Council meets,
there will be a growing position of Arab cooperation in this field
and there will be a possibility to mobilize Arab potential in this
framework to be more visible and effective as a basis for Arab policy
which is not only based on economy and policy elements but also on
military elements to defend their essential interests, peoples,
security and stability.

Prince Saud said that the meeting the Supreme Defense Council should
be held and that is what we are now seeking. The Council will do a
lot to protect Arab interests. When the meeting is held, the
foundations to protect Arab interests will be built, and such Council
will play its role in the military sector.

Whether such a meeting would indicate threats of waging a war, Prince
Saud said that this is not linked to the state of war, but the Arab
Defense Council has not met for years and did not identify places of
strength and danger in the Arab world. Also, the Council did not plan
how to unify military exercises and did not think of joint work to
build integrated defense in all air, sea and land sectors.

Prince Saud added that all these things take time but we must start
work. The leaders decided that they want to work in seriousness and
credibility and try to build the foundations so that the work will be
based on strong bases protecting us all from adventures that have
become a plight against the Arab world in the urgency of entering
battles for which there has been no preparation which led to horror
and losses that weakened our nations.

Asked about the demands to withdraw the Arab peace initiative, Prince
Saud al-Faisal asked why we serve the interests of Israel in this
framework and we withdraw the initiative. If Israel wants a real
peace, the initiative exists. If not, the initiative will be the
morsel that Israel can not swallow. How we cancel it by ourselves and
serve Israel's interest. The initiative is a weapon in our hands in
cooperation with other nations.

Prince Saud added if we withdraw the initiative, what we expect from
Israel and asked, "Will Israel be defeated?" I do not think this will
change any thing. We are proceeding in our approach in this context
by combining our efforts and global positions to force Israel to
change its position.
He noted that Israel has not been established on the ground
except for its allies who enabled it with a military machine which is
possessed and controlled by it the Palestinian presence.
He added that the work we are doing is not a simple. It
should not be taken from the standpoint that we are unable to take
any measures. Everyone can be angry and sad, but if they are not
prepared fully to meet the challenges facing him, I think he would be
reckless and in this way there will be the loss of the interests of
the people.
Prince Saud stressed that success does come only by the
establishment of the Arab real power. And this power does come only
by human beings, saying, "We are all responsible for building the
Arab human being capable of meeting the challenges and building a
civilization that can face the world by the required force. But if we
are not qualified, it is not required to launch slogans that we hear
all the time".

Asked about the outcome of the emergency meeting of Arab foreign
ministers, Prince Saud said that now there is a difference between
the performance of the League currently and what was happening
before. In the past, Arab countries took decisions and every minister
went home. As for today, we formed a working team and we have
assurances from a number of countries that they will support the Arab
decision and we hope that the submitted Arab draft resolution will be
approved by the Security Council.

He said,"The work will not end by today's meeting; but it starts. It
is correct, decisions do not implement themselves, but they are
implemented by men and women who work to implement them. We do the
best of our ability to implement them".
Regarding whether there was an agreement by Palestinian factions to
stop firing rockets before heading to the Security Council, Prince
Saud said that the truce has been required and thankfully Egypt has
had a major effort. If we had remained working on it, we would not
have reached where we are now. We seek to stop the fighting so that
we can work on uniting the Palestinian ranks and I think that the
start is well.
Asked about the proportion of the decision with the
shedding of Palestinian blood, Prince Saud said," We do not match
between the blood shed and words written in the statement. The most
important thing that we do is to stop the fighting. We focus on this.
We know that the Palestinian blood can not be compensated by
anything. We hope the implementation of the actions we have taken,
the increase in our cooperation in this area and the increase in the
cohesion between Arab countries. This will make us capable to
confront the aggression as it deserves of confrontation.