Africans, Arabs to Push Israel, S. Africa Boycotts

Foreign ministers from 24 Arab and African nations ended a three-day meeting here Saturday with an agreement to tighten political and economic boycotts against Israel and South Africa.

The secretaries general of the Arab League and the Organization of African Unity, Chedli Klibi and Ide Oumarou, speaking at a news conference after the meeting, also condemned U.S. sanctions against Libya and Spain’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

“We all face a common foe--the racist regime in South Africa and the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine--and will work together to topple them,” Oumarou said.

‘New Epoch of Cooperation’

Klibi said the boycott agreement and a pact on cooperation between the two international organizations would “open a new epoch of wider cooperation in all fields between the peoples of Africa and the Arab nation.”

He gave no details of either agreement but said economic cooperation would focus on joint enterprises to be financed by the Arab Bank for Development in Africa and the African Development Bank.

Oumarou said the foreign ministers, who act as a permanent commission on Afro-Arab coordination, decided that officials should meet in Libya later this year to prepare for an Afro-Arab summit meeting.

Focus on Internal Problems

Both groups “should first resolve their internal problems to make the summit a success,” Oumarou said without elaborating.

Klibi said the organizations deeply regret Spain’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Israel “at a time when many states in the world are tightening the blockade against Israel for disregarding United Nations resolutions and continuing aggression and terrorism against the Arabs.”

Spanish-Arab Ties

The Spanish government failed to take into account “good ties and strong links between the Spanish and Arab peoples,” he added.

Oumarou and Klibi described American charges of Libyan involvement in guerrilla attacks at Rome and Vienna airports last month, in which 15 travelers were killed, as baseless.

The ministerial meeting earlier condemned U.S. sanctions against Libya as “arbitrary and illegal” and urged Washington to cancel them.