Newspaper
Cordoba
Cordoba
– Wednesday, December 19, 1990
Suhail Akel has referred to the Gulf crisis and the Palestinian situation, among other issues.
Palestinian proposition (view)
Yesterday afternoon, the director of the Palestine Information Office in Argentina, Mr. Suhail Akel, visited the Cordoba staff. He is visiting our city, an important stop in his tour around the country, in order to spread Palestinian stance with regard to the Persian Gulf crisis, the Argentine participation in the conflict and in order to denounce the repressive policy developed by Israel against the Palestinian residents living in the Jewish State and the occupied territories. He also referred to the growing presence of Jewish settlers in those territories (“it could end up destroying the Palestinian State”), their claim for the return of those territories occupied by Israel in 1967. He also referred to the fact that UN must approach the Palestinian issue. The following is the conversation we have had with him.
“With regard to the Gulf crisis resolution, the stance of the Palestine State president, Yasser Arafat, is very clear: Iraqi withdrawal; the withdrawal of all occupation forces from the great Arab homeland (it includes the withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 and the withdrawal of the American and Western forces from Saudi Arabia) and a plebiscite allowing the Kuwaiti people to elect their governors: the earlier government or Saddam Hussein’ s government. This is an Arab conflict which must be resolved by Arab countries”.
In respect of the possibility, which daily seems to be further, of achieving a peaceful solution to the Gulf crisis by means of an American-Iraqi dialogue, Akel said that Palestinians expect that “there may be an effective dialogue between the United States and Iraq, the United States reverts its aggressive policy against Iraq and this situation may be resolved by means of negotiations because we, Palestinians, fear that Israel may be able to unleash this war”.
According to Akel, Israel is pressuring the United States “to carry out its objectives against Iraq” since they say that if Americans do not attack, they (Israelis) are in good condition to do so. "Once again, Israel is searching for a war in Middle East in order to take over more Arab territory. As a result of this war, Israel might be able to occupy all Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, a great part of Syria, a great part of Saudi Arabia and a great part of Iraq, including its capital city Baghdad”. In order to illustrate his stance, Akel referred to one of Israel’s neighbours: Jordan. “If it fell in a few hours, Israel would have a border with Iraq. Israel has a historic opportunity to make its dream come true: a State from the Nile to the Euphrates. It counts with the 600,000 soldiers who have arrived in Saudi Arabia to achieve its objectives”.
Argentina
With regard to the Argentine participation in the Gulf crisis, Akel states that he is worried about this issue. “Unfortunately, Argentina could become a direct or indirect accomplice of Arab people’s great massacre, which is about to start”.
In addition to the Palestinian problem, Akel reaffirms: “We urge the UN and the Security Council to definitely deal with the Palestinian situation and stop Israel’s genocide imposed on our people. Israel must return the territories which were occupied in 1967. We do not ask for the destruction of the State of Israel. When we declared our independence in Algiers in November 1988, we acknowledged the existence of Israel in our territory (77% of territory in ancient Palestine). But Israel occupied (the remaining 23%) in the 1967 war.
In fact 53% of that remaining 23% of territory is being occupied by Jewish settlers. There is no doubt that these figures will rise up with the arrival of more Soviet Jews. It is believed that there will be two million Soviet Jews by 1992 (Now there are over 170,000). This is going to destroy the Palestine State.
Photo: Suhail Akel: The Intifada or uprising which Palestinians have carried out for three years against the Israeli occupation of their territory aims to achieve the building of a Palestinian State.