Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News

JERUSALEM, 16 April 2004 — French President Jacques Chirac yesterday added his voice to Arab outrage over America’s support for Israel’s claim to occupied land and dismissal of Palestinian right of return.

In Cairo, the Arab League described US President George W. Bush’s declarations as “very dangerous” and “legally baseless,” warning they could “strengthen Israel’s occupation.”

“No state, especially if it is a mediator, has the right to cancel the rights of one party,” said Hossam Zaki, the spokesman of the 22-member pan-Arab body.

After talks Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Bush effectively ruled out the right of Palestinian refugees to return to what became the state of Israel in 1948, saying they must settle in an eventual Palestinian state. He also endorsed Sharon’s plan to annex vast stretches of the West Bank.

Veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat warned there would be no peace in the region until all Jewish settlements had been removed while armed factions vowed there would be no let-up in their campaign of attacks.

“Peace cannot be established without the total end of the Israeli occupation and the settlements,” Arafat said in a televised speech. “Our destiny is to defend our land, holy sites, Jerusalem and our right to freedom, independence and the right of refugees to return to their homeland,” he said.

Chirac rejected any unilateral moves to change borders in the Middle East. “I have reservations about the unilateral, bilateral questioning of international law,” Chirac said during a visit to Algeria.

He said such moves would set an “unfortunate and dangerous precedent.”

The European Union avoided direct criticism of Bush but said any border changes should be agreed with the Palestinians and any Israeli-Palestinian peace deal should include a fair and just deal for refugees.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei denounced Bush’s pronouncements as “unacceptable”, saying issues such as the fate of the refugees and the final borders should only be determined in negotiations under the framework of the US-backed road map peace plan.

“This is the first time in history that the right of return has been dealt in this way before the permanent status negotiations started and unilaterally from the Israeli side and from the United States,” he told reporters.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath urged the other cosponsors of the road map — the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — to press the United States to withdraw its support for the Sharon plan.

“We would like the (other) members of the quartet to tell the Americans that this cannot lead to any positive effect,” he said.

Lebanese President Emile Lahoud denounced Bush’s declarations as a “violent shock to anyone who believes in Middle East peace”. “This stance will have a dangerous fallout, notably the end of hopes for peace, an increase in anti-American sentiments and the recourse to force in order to secure rights,” the president said in a statement.