Arab Countries Call for Syria Political Solution, Refuses to Recognize “Jewish” Israel

Arab leaders on Wednesday called for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, as they refused to recognize the Zionist entity as a “Jewish State”.

“We call for a political solution to the crisis in Syria based on the Geneva I communique,” calling for a peaceful transition of power, they said in a statement at the end of a two-day summit in Kuwait.

The communique was drawn up at an international conference in 2012 in the Swiss city without the participation of the Syrian government or the foreign-backed militants.Arab summit in Kuwait

The two warring sides met at so-called Geneva II peace talks which UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi broke off on February 15 without setting a date for a resumption of negotiations.

At the summit on Monday, Syria’s so-called National Coalition chief Ahmed Jarba repeated calls on the international community to supply the foreign-backed opposition with “sophisticated weapons”.

Meanwhile, the Arab leaders fully back a Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state”.

“We express our total rejection of the call to consider Israel as a Jewish state,” said the declaration.

The Palestinians recognized Israel at the start of the “peace process” in the early 1990s, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted they now acknowledge it as the “national homeland” of the Jewish people, in a move which would effectively torpedo the right of return for Palestinian refugees.

The Arab League had already rejected the demand, in a statement issued from its Cairo headquarters earlier this month.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is facing an uphill battle to keep peace talks on track beyond an April 29 deadline, with the negotiations waylaid over several key issues, including the question of recognition.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has made it clear that he will never recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”
Netanyahu has placed the recognition dispute at the forefront of the talks, describing Arab rejection of the demand as the “root of the conflict”.