Leader Moammar Kadhafi announces his withdrawal from the Arab
summit

Tunis, 22 May 2004 (Tapex)

Leader Moammar Kadhafi, announced today his withdrawal from the Arab Summit during a conference he held in his residence in the Northern suburb of Gammarth.

The Libyan Leader voiced regret to withdraw from this summit saying:
''Libya is forced to withdraw from the summit due to a disagreement on the agenda.''

Asked on the reasons why he accepted to participate in a summit whose agenda he had known beforehand, the Libyan Leader answered: "I have come to Tunisia out of consideration to President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.''

He described as difficult the juncture in which the Arab summit is held, stressing the deterioration of the situation in Palestine and Iraq as well as the threats weighing on Syria.

On the question whether his withdrawal from the summit means a final withdrawal from the Arab league, the Libyan Leader replied that this issue will be submitted to the people's committees, expressing the hope that these committees would approve this decision.

He reminded that Libya had presented to the Amman Summit an Arab union project and a project for the creation of democratic Palestinian-Israeli state, pointing out that the summit had at that time decided to set up a commission made up of 7 Arab foreign ministers led by the League' Secretary-general to study the proposal related to the Palestinian issue. He deplored that such proposals were not included in the agenda of the Tunis summit.

As regards the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, the Libyan leader pointed out that the Palestinians live under an occupation regime which requires an intervention for their benefit as was the case during the intervention of the NATO forces in Kosovo.

Addressing the question of Iraq, the Head of the Libyan Revolution proposed to replace the coalition forces by U.N. forces, evoking the possibility of a participation of Arab countries in these forces.

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