"Had
this crime been committed by any other state, the (United Nations)
Security Council would been summoned and resolutions would have been
adopted immediately. Even military intervention could have been
used," said the Arab League chief in remarks carried by Egyptian
TV.
On
the impact of this assassination on the stalled peace process and the
upcoming Arab summit in Tunisia later this month, Moussa accused
Israel of deliberately burying any chances of peace.
"With
this odious operation, Israel is seeking to undermine all hope of
creating conditions that would allow us to envisage a political
solution to the conflict in the Middle East," Moussa said, quoted
by his spokesman Hossam Zaki in Tunis.
By
assassinating Sheikh Yassin ahead of next week's Arab summit,
"Israel is refusing to take the extended hand of peace," he
added.
Peace,
Reforms Casualties Of Israeli ‘Terror’
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Palestinian youths sit around the gravesite of Sheik Yassin
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The
assassination and its implications on the region, meanwhile, made
headlines in the Arab papers Tuesday, notably the Saudis.
"(Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's crime in Gaza yesterday dealt a body
blow to the American plan," wrote Al-Medina in a
front-page leader headlined "Greater Middle East Fire."
Washington's
"Greater Middle East Initiative" ignored the Palestinian
issue, suggesting its authors "can't see that regional peace and
political reform are inseparable," it said, according to a review
carried out by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Then
came "the assassination of the crippled Yassin with missiles
fired from (U.S.-made) helicopters" to "put American policy
planners sitting in front of their computers at the Pentagon, State
Department, White House and CIA in a fix," the paper added.
The
assassination of the Hamas founder will not help U.S. President George
W. Bush's efforts to fight terror, "because Bush's war on terror
has to be comprehensive and not exclude any terrorist, including
Sharon," and it will complicate Washington's task in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
If
Washington wants its "suspect plan" to survive Yassin's
killing, it must "declare war on Sharon's terrorism, starting
with a ban on the export of U.S. weapons used in this terrorism,"
Al-Medina stressed.
Okaz
said that by "killing even the
thought - the mere thought - of seeking a peaceful settlement,"
Israel was trying to turn the Palestinians into
"terrorists".
The
assassination was part of efforts to "drive any Palestinian who
(believes in) peace up against a wall and a deliberate attempt to turn
all the Palestinian people into terrorists as a result of Israel's
elimination of all other alternatives," added the Saudi daily.
The
English-language Arab News said that Israel had "not only
opened the gates of hell, as one incensed Hamas official
declared," but also "slammed shut the door of peace."
Israel
killed a leader who "could have called a halt to militant
violence, and would have been listened to had he done so," the
paper asserted, calling for "action by Washington to rein in the
Israeli murderers."
Saudi
Gazette, another
English-language daily, agreed that "only (Yassin) had the clout
and ability to convince his followers to walk a necessary road (to
peace)."
Noting
that Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was "another sitting
duck in his office in Ramallah," it said the U.S. was
"ultimately responsible for the actions of Sharon ... (and it)
must immediately endorse the sending of a multinational force to
Palestine to protect the weak."
Al-Watan
hoped, apparently without
much conviction, that the upcoming Arab summit would take a
"clear" stand on "Sharon's ongoing crimes."
Following
the assassination of Sheikh Yassin, the Palestinian Authority called
for a special session of the United Nations Security Council to be
convened.
During
a meeting chaired by Arafat and attended by Prime Minister Ahmad
Qorei, the government decided to call for "a special meeting of
the Security Council to examine this vile crime and provide protection
for our people," according to a statement.
It
also called for a meeting of the Arab League's ministerial council to
"examine the consequences of this crime and of the assassinations
targeting Palestinian leaders".
