Arab hardliners propose cutting oil supplies to U.S.

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Posted 7:36AM on Wednesday, April 3, 2002

CAIRO, Egypt - Arab hardliners have mapped out a strategy that includes cutting off diplomatic ties with Israel and oil supplies to America. But moderates, including Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, were unlikely to let such ideas dominate a planned Arab League foreign ministers' meeting. Mubarak looked to the United States to move instead, sending a message to President Bush late Tuesday urging him "take immediate action that will stop - as soon as possible - the violent military campaign undertaken by Israel to occupy Palestinian controlled areas," Egypt's Middle East News agency reported. The Palestinians also are pushing for tough action. Palestinian Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said Tuesday it may be time for Egypt and Jordan to annul their separate peace treaties with Israel. "We've never called for that before because we were seeking relations with the Israelis ourselves," Shaath told The Associated Press at Arab League headquarters in Cairo. "We never called for anything which would go against the peace process. But today, Israel has destroyed every chance for the peace process." Arab diplomats worked Wednesday to set an early date for the foreign ministers' meeting requested by the Palestinians to forge a unified stance against Israel's invasion of Palestinian cities and quarantining of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Diplomats said a meeting was possible either Thursday or Saturday - talks were unlikely Friday, the Muslim holy day. Some participants were in Malaysia for a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, which ended Wednesday, and needed time to travel to Cairo, where the Arab League is headquartered. At a meeting Tuesday of lower-ranking diplomats attached to the league, Iraq proposed an agenda for the foreign ministers' consultations. According to Arab diplomats, Iraq suggested among other proposals that Arabs pull out of the U.S.-led international coalition against terrorism. While Iraq portrayed the move as a way to force the United States to pressure Israel, its motivation may be selfish. Iraq fears it could be the next target in the campaign; Bush has labeled it part of an axis of terror and accused it of supporting terrorists and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Iraq also repeated calls it made earlier in the week for cutting oil supplies to the United States; shutting down Israeli embassies in Arab capitals - Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania are the only Arab states with diplomatic relations with Israel; and giving the Palestinians anti-tank and other weapons, routing the supplies through Israel's neighbors like Jordan and Lebanon. Libya, meanwhile, suggested Arabs withdraw their recent peace initiative to Israel. At an Arab summit last week in Beirut, leaders adopted a Saudi formula pledging Israel would be granted normal relations with Arabs if it withdrew from Arab land it seized in the 1967 Mideast war and recognized a Palestinian state and the right of Palestinian refugees to return. Such hardline proposals are expected to be turned down by moderates like the Gulf countries, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, who fear increasing the confrontation with Israel would only further destabilize the region. Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel, have repeatedly rejected calls to freeze the treaties or cut ties. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have already rejected Iraq's call to use oil as a weapon in the present conflict. Arab leaders have struggled over how to respond to the military offensive Israeli launched Friday, taking over several Palestinian towns, battling Palestinian gunmen and conducting house-to-house sweeps in a bid to uproot militants blamed for a string of terror attacks. Israeli forces have had Arafat confined in his Ramallah offices for five days. Tens of thousands of Arabs in countries across the region have held daily street protests since Friday, many denouncing their governments for not taking action against Israel. Skirmishes broke out for a second straight day Tuesday at Cairo University. Police fired tear gas and water hoses at stone-throwing students and arrested 33 demonstrators. Fifteen demonstrators were also arrested in Helwan, near Cairo.