Egypt urges Indonesian support for Arab summit

JAKARTA (JP): Egyptian Ambassador to Indonesia Mahmoud Osman called on Indonesia yesterday to give its support for the Arab summit, which will be held in Cairo this weekend.

"The Moslem world, within which Indonesia is the largest, as well as the Third World, should exhibit support by way of reflecting solidarity with the Arab world," Ambassador Osman was quoted as saying by Antara yesterday.

"The Arab world is an organic entity, inseparable from the larger scheme of the Third World," he said.

The ambassador held a press conference yesterday to explain about the Cairo summit which is held to forge Arab solidarity following the election of Israeli hard-liner Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's victory with an election platform hostile to any peace with Palestinians and Israel's Arab neighbors threatens to unravel the peace negotiations painfully established by the previous Labor government.

The Egyptian envoy said one of the summit's objectives is to strengthen Arab countries' commitment to pursuing the peace process. "The change of government in Israel should not change this reality because peace has reached a point of no return.

"Although the Cairo summit reflects primarily the sense of anxiety about the prospects of the peace process in the Middle East, it is my view that equal interest and involvement should be demonstrated by the Islamic world and the Third World," he said.

Any obstacle to the peace process will inevitably have negative effects, one way or another, on the Islamic world, especially where the fate of Jerusalem, regarded by Moslems as a holy site, is concerned, Ambassador Osman said.

He praised Indonesia's firm stand, as recently reiterated by Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, that Jakarta will not open diplomatic ties with Israel until after the Palestinian and Middle East issues are fully resolved. (emb)