Saudis press M.E. plan

Press, 25 November 1981, Page 8

Saudis press M.E. plan

NZPA-Reuter Fez. Morocco Saudi Arabia is to press for approval of its. controversial Middle East peace plan despite having failed to get the proposals included on the agenda for the Arab summit meeting beginning in Fez today, Arab diplomatic sources have said. The Saudi Foreign Minister (Prince Saud al-Faisal) said yesterday his country would submit the eight-point plan to the summit meeting. The Saudi proposals were opposed by hard-line Arab States at a two-day preparatory meeting of Foreign Ministers. Unable to reach agreement on the plan despite a lengthy debate, the Ministers yesterday decided to let their heads of State deal with the emotive issue at the summit meeting.

The dispute centred over the plan’s seventh clause, c which supports the right of p all Middle Eastern countries t to live in peace. These coun- t tries are assumed by the t Arab States to include Israel. Arab diplomatic sources suggested that King Hassan t of Morocco, the meeting’s h host, could play a key role in v what could emerge as a t compromise solution involv- I' ing amendments to parts of c the Saudi plan, which also k calls for Israeli withdrawal S to its pre-1967 border and the L creation of a Palestinian il State. Delegation sources said t; the plan again came under K sharp attack yesterday from t< the Libyan Foreign Minister C (Mr Abdel-Ati Obeidi), who L accused anyone who sup- A ported the plan of being a tl traitor. A

The Libyans protested to other delegations that the plan had been broadcast to the outside world before being submitted to the Arabs, they said. Syria, Algeria, South Yemen. Iraq, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation have also criticised the plan, which has been supported by the Gulf States, Tunisia, Morocco, and North Yemen, conference sources said. Turkey and Pakistan. Islamic States not in the Arab League, have also supported it. ■

The Arab League’s secre-tary-general (Mr Chedli Kli'bi) said the Foreign Ministers had agreed to grant the Organisation of African Unity observer status in the Arab League, the first time this has been given to a nonArab organisation.