|
Arabs Appeal For Protection Force For Palestinians, Slam U.S. Embassy Move
CAIRO, March 12 (News Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers renewed an appeal here Monday for an international protection force for the Palestinians and warned the United States against moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The foreign ministers were meeting at Arab League headquarters to prepare for an Arab summit in Amman on March 27th, which is expected to focus on the Palestinian uprising against Israel and the crumbling U.N. sanctions on Iraq.
"Arab countries together address the United Nations Security Council, asking it to meet immediately to study ways to set up an international force to protect the Palestinian people," the Arab League said in a statement.
A senior Palestinian official, Nabil Shaath, said the United States would find it hard to justify vetoing possible future U.N. resolutions sending an international force to protect the Palestinians.
"We're expecting to get the support of 10 [out of the 15] members of the Security Council" for the force, Shaath said without elaborating.
The league said, "Arab ministers have [also] decided to make direct contact with the United States, Russia and the European Union, to ask them to take a stand against Israeli measures, especially the blockade of the territories."
Israel has imposed a military blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the latest Palestinian uprising erupted on September 28th, preventing Palestinians from working in Israel and taking a heavy economic toll on them.
The appeal for a protection force follows a similar one issued at the last Arab summit in Cairo on October 21-22, and amounted to a diplomatic challenge to Israel, which seeks to prevent an "internationalization" of the conflict.
The secretary general of the Arab League, Esmat Abdel Meguid, opened the meeting here warning the United States and other countries against moving their embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
"The United States, Russia, the European Union, all countries in the world, as well as international and regional organizations, should expect disastrous consequences for the region and for the interests of all the countries of the world in the region, if embassies are moved to Jerusalem," Abdel Meguid said.
Jerusalem has already proven to be an explosive issue.
The uprising started after Sharon, before his election last month as prime minister, visited a site holy to both Jews and Muslims in September in a move seen as pressing an Israeli claim to the entire city.
Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, when questioned in Congress last Wednesday, said President George W. Bush was committed to moving "the embassy to the capital of Israel, which is Jerusalem." But Arab foreign ministers, citing U.N. resolutions, said such a move would be "illegal."
Some 435 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in more than five months of bloodletting.
The Iraqi delegation to the meeting here asked for an end to sanctions and a rejection of the air exclusion zones to be included on the agenda of the Amman summit.
The request was to be examined by the ministers before the meeting ends later Monday, although Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said in Baghdad the summit "should not turn to questions concerning Iraq" to avoid straining the atmosphere.
The United States and its allies set up the air exclusion zones after the 1991 Gulf war to protect Iraqi Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north but they have no specific U.N. authorization.
|
