Arab foreign ministers seen split over Jerusalem

CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Differences between Arab nations, especially Egypt and Syria, may prevent Arab foreign ministers from reaching a common stand on Jerusalem when they meet in Cairo on Sunday and Monday, analysts and diplomats say.

"There is not much to bet on at that meeting, particularly with signs of competition between Egypt and Syria," Emad Gad, an analyst at the al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Reuters.

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Gad said a lack of consensus among the three most influential Arab nations -- Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia -- could handicap the gathering at the headquarters of the 22-member Arab League.

"We cannot talk about effective Arab meetings without interaction between Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia," he said.

The differences between Syria and Egypt appear to lie beyond the issue of Jerusalem, about which both parties are in fundamental agreement -- that the eastern sector of the city should be the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Syria feels Egypt's focus on the Palestinian issue has left it isolated, analysts say, and Damascus is more wary than the Palestinians of Egyptian mediation in talks with Israel.

"The Egyptians were usually briefed by the Israelis before they heard from the Syrians (on Israeli-Syrian peace talks)," one source said.

A Cairo-based diplomat said Egypt wants the Arab foreign ministers to issue a moderate communique similar to one that emerged from a meeting of the Jerusalem Committee of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Morocco on Monday.

The 16-member committee urged the Palestinians and Israel to resume peace talks but said East Jerusalem must be the capital of a Palestinian state.

Syria takes a much firmer line and demands that Israel withdraw from all of East Jerusalem to comply with U.N. land-for-peace resolutions.

Israel seized East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and, in a move not recognized internationally, calls all of the city its "united and eternal capital."

Palestinians want the eastern sector as the capital of a state they plan to declare as early as September 13.

The twice-yearly Arab foreign ministers' meeting coincides with a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the 52-year-old Arab-Israeli conflict and the deadlock over Jerusalem.

Differences over the holy city were seen as the main cause of the collapse of last month's U.S.-sponsored summit between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was due to travel to France on Friday for what presidential sources said was an attempt to drum up European support for proposals on the final status of Jerusalem, holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims.

U.S. President Bill Clinton held talks with Mubarak on Tuesday to find ways to bridge gaps between the Israelis and the Palestinians. On Wednesday, Mubarak briefed Arafat on his talks with Clinton, who said time was running short to achieve peace.

The Arab foreign ministers were also expected to discuss the Syrian peace track. Talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in January amid disagreement over the return of the strategic Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, who took office in July after the death of his father, Hafez Assad, has expressed readiness to resume negotiations with Israel at any time but only on the basis of a total Israeli withdrawal from the Golan.

Arab foreign ministers transferred their March meeting from Cairo to Beirut to show solidarity with Lebanon after Israeli air strikes. Israel, under pressure from Hezbollah guerrillas, ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon two months later.

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