Скачать или смотреть EGYPT: ARAB LEAGUE MEMBERS SIGN ANTI TERRORIST PACT

(22 Apr 1998) Natural Sound

The Arab League meeting in Cairo signed the first anti-terrorism pact for the region on Wednesday.

The pact calls on member states to deny refuge or training to groups which launch attacks on other Arab countries.

Crucially the pact exempts militants who target Israel.

The pact which all 22 member states signed outlaws the providing of refuge, financial or military support to groups which launch attacks on other Arab nations.

But for an anti-terrorism pact it gives no hope to peace in the Middle East.

The Arab League has exempted resistance movements - it says militant acts aimed at "liberation and self-determination" do not amount to terrorism.

That clause was proposed by Lebanon and is intended to justify attacks on Israel by Palestinians, as well as Lebanese guerrilla groups fighting Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.

Algeria and Egypt, which have long battled Islamic fundamentalist movements, lobbied for the pact for the past two years.

The United States and other western states have long accused two of the signatories, Sudan and Libya, of international terrorism.

But unlike the U-N sanctions imposed on Libya and Sudan the Arab League's treaty does not include any punishment for countries which do not abide by its rules.

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