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Saturday Morning News

Arab League to Hold Summit

Aired March 24, 2001 - 7:15 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Foreign ministers from 22 Arab nations are gathering in Amman, Jordan, setting the stage for an Arab League summit that is scheduled to begin on Tuesday. Arab leaders facing some difficult challenges.

CNN's Rula Amin joining us live from Amman with the latest -- Rula.

RULA AMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, it's very windy in Amman, so I hope you're hearing me clearly.

But today the Arab foreign ministers started their meeting here in the building behind me at the Royal Cultural Center. They met for three hours. Now they are in a recess. They will be back in three hours' time.

They're trying to finalize the agenda for Arab leaders who will be meeting here on next Tuesday. The Arab leaders will try to come up with a unified stance on a number of issues. Two main issues that dominate their agenda are Iraq and the Palestinian uprising. There will be long, long discussions on how much are -- Arab leaders are going to be willing to go in order to support Iraq's demand for an absolute, immediate end to the 10-year-old sanctions on Iraq.

The other issue is the Palestinian uprising, how to support that Palestinian uprising, and how to deal with the new Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NABIL SHA'ATH, PALESTINIAN CABINET MINISTER: Mr. Sharon wants to subjugate the Palestinians, want to starve them, want to destroy their economy. And we need an Arab world to say no to Mr. Sharon and to say to the American station, Get on with it and use your influence in order to stop this Israeli real destruction of the Palestinian economy and the Palestinian people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMIN: Now, the Arab leaders will have also to consider, as they're trying to take -- make their decisions that the Arab -- their Arab constituency, there's growing frustration among the Arab street (sic). Public opinion in the Arab world is very sympathetic to the Iraqi people and to their suffering due to the 10-year-old sanctions, and they also are very sympathetic to the Palestinian uprising. And they've been putting a lot of pressure on their leaders in order to give the Palestinians and the Iraqis stronger backing.

And, of course, the leaders will have also to consider their relationships with the United States, because the U.S. is trying to rally Arab support around its new policy to -- for a modified sanctions regime on Iraq -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: CNN's Rula Amin in a very blustery Amman, Jordan, thank you very much.

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