Sections
About
Back
Document

Sixth Arab Summit: Confidential Decisions

Sixth Arab Summit

Confidential Decisions

Algiers, 28 November 1973

 

The Sixth Arab Summit Conference held in Algiers discussed recent developments in the Arab and international situations and the circumstances of confrontation with the enemy.

Having heard the statements made by the Arab Kings and Presidents, the Conference took the following decisions.

 

I. THE INTERIM GOAL OF THE ARAB NATION

The Conference decides that the goals of the Arab nation at the present stage of common Arab struggle are:

1. The total liberation of all the Arab territories occupied during the aggression of June 1967 and refusal to relinquish or renounce any part of these territories or to allow national sovereignty over them to be prejudiced.

2. The liberation of the Arab city of Jerusalem and refusal to accept any situation liable to prejudice total Arab sovereignty over the Holy City.

3. The commitment to the recovery of the national rights of the Palestinian people in conformity with the decisions of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the sole representative of the Palestinian people. [The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has reservations about this paragraph.]

4. The cause of Palestine as the cause of all Arabs. No Arab party is entitled to relinquish this commitment; this is in conformity with the decisions of the previous Arab Summit Conference.

 

II. IN THE MILITARY FIELD

In view of the continuation of the battle against the enemy until the aims of our nation are realized by the liberation of the occupied territories and the restoration of the national rights of the Palestinian people, the Conference decides the following:

1. Solidarity on the part of all the Arab countries with Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian people in the common struggle to realize the just goals of the Arabs.

2. The provision of military and financial aid of all kinds to the Egyptian and Syrian front. so as to reinforce their military capacity to fight the battle of liberation and to combat the immense aid and unlimited support received by the enemy.

3. To support the Palestine resistance by all available means so as to ensure its- ability to play an effective role in the battle.

 

III. IN THE ECONOMIC FIELD

In view of the importance, of the economy in the battle against the enemy and of the necessity to make use of all the weapons in the Arabs’ possession and to mobilize all resources capable of reinforcing combat capacity, the Conference decides the following:

1. To strengthen economic relations between the Arab countries and to call on the Arab Economic Council to draw up a programme of implementation to ensure this.

2. To continue to use oil as a weapon in the battle in the light of the decisions of the Oil Ministers and to link the lifting of the embargo on oil exports to any country with that country’s undertaking to support the just cause of the Arabs, and to call on the Oil Ministers’ Follow-up Committee to follow up the implementation of these decisions and the decisions of the Oil Ministers on rates of reducing production, this committee to work in coordination with the Committee of the Foreign Ministers of the Oil Countries on all matters regarding the development of the attitudes of foreign countries to the Arab cause.

3. The necessity to support resistance and ensure endurance in the occupied Arab territories.

4. To rebuild what was destroyed by the war because of the effect this will have on the war effort and on raising the fighting spirit and combat potential of the confrontation countries.

 

IV. IN THE POLITICAL FIELD

Political action complements and is a continuation of the military battle in our struggle against the enemy.

In light of the attitudes of foreign countries to the just struggle of the·Arabs, the Conference decides the following:

A. In the African Field:

1. To reinforce Arab-African cooperation in the political field and to strengthen Arab diplomatic representation in Africa.

2. That all relations, diplomatic, consular, economic, cultural, etc., with South Africa, Portugal and Rhodesia should be severed by all Arab countries that have not already done so.

3. That a total embargo be imposed on exports of Arab oil to these three countries.

4. That special measures be taken to ensure that normal supplies of oil to the friendly African countries continue.

5. To strengthen and expand economic, financial and cultural cooperation with the friendly African countries bilaterally and at the level of Arab and African regional institutions.

6. To set up an Arab-African financial establishment to participate in economic and social development projects and to provide the African countries with technical aid. The Arab Economy Ministers shall draw up the regulations for this establishment and determine its capital.

7. To provide immediate aid to the African peoples who are the victims of natural disasters and famine.

8. To increase support for the struggle of the African liberation· organizations at the diplomatic and financial levels.

9. With a view to speeding up the implementation of these decisions and ensuring constant cooperation between the Arab and African countries, the Secretariat General of the Arab League is called upon to take the measures necessary for their implementation and to get in touch with the General Secretariat of the Organization for African Unity and its Committee of Seven States, to arrange periodical consultations at all levels, including the highest, between the Arab and African countries.

B. The Non-Aligned Countries :

1. To act to secure the implementation of the resolutions of the Algiers Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, especially those resolutions concerning the boycott of Israel, particularly in the political, economic and military fields, and to request Algeria, as Chairman of the Conference, to call its members to a special high-level meeting of the Bureau to ensure the implementation of these resolutions.·

2. To .act to ensure that these countries continue to provide support by all available means to the Arab struggle against Zionism.

C. The Islamic Countries:

1. To make every effort to persuade the Islamic countries that have relations with Israel to sever these relations – political, economic and cultural.

2. To make every effort to ensure that these countries provide greater support to the Arab struggle in all fields.

D. Western Europe:

1. To call on the Common Market countries to develop the political attitude initiated in their statement of November 6, 1973.

2. To call on the Western European countries to stop their military and economic aid to Israel.

3. To make every effort to ensure that these countries lift their embargo on exports of arms to the Arab countries.

4. To make every effort to ensure that the Western European countries exert pressure on the United States of America to stop aiding the enemy.

E. Asian Countries:

1. To continue efforts to persuade the Asian countries that have political, economic and cultural relations with Israel to sever them, and to adopt an attitude of greater support for the Arab battle of liberation and greater solidarity with the Asian Arab countries which have territories that have been occupied.

F. The USSR and the Eastern European Countries:

Continued contacts with these countries to ensure that they:

1. Continue to support the Arab cause in all fields.

2. Provide the Arab countries and the fighting fronts with arms in sufficient quantities and of the right quality to enable the Arabs to confront the enemy.

3. Make every effort to persuade Romania to sever her political and economic relations with Israel.

G. People’s China:

Continued Arab contacts with People’s China to ensure that she continues to support the Arab cause and to provide it with all possible support.

H. The United States of America:

1. Efforts to make the American government change its attitude of alignment with Israel, and to call its attention to the dangers of its interests in the Arab area if it continues to pursue its present policy.

2. Redoubled efforts at the level of the American people and their various information media to explain the justice of the Arab cause and the dangers involved in the United States’ alignment with Israel to the interests of the American people and to international peace and security.

 

Source: International Documents on Palestine, 1973. Beirut : Institute for Palestine Studies, 1976, p. 525-527.