|
Islamic World Urges U.S. Act Against Israeli Aggression: OIC
DOHA, May 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Islamic world urged the United States to take urgent action to halt Israeli "aggression" against the Palestinians, at an emergency ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital on Saturday.
Qatar's emir, as president of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), called on "the American administration and President George [W.] Bush to intervene urgently" to bring an end to the violence.
"It is not possible to stay silent about the Israeli aggressions ... or to accept an unfair policy," said Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country convened the one-day talks on the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
"I propose ... to work for the holding of an extraordinary meeting of the [U.N.] Security Council to examine the serious situation in the Palestinian territories," he said.
Sheikh Hamad said an Islamic ministerial committee would tour the capitals of the five major powers in the Security Council and of the European Union.
Also in the opening session, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat slammed what he called the U.N.'s "total impotence" in the face of mounting deaths in the Palestinian territories, pinning the blame on the United States.
"Why is there this total impotence of the Security Council?" asked Arafat.
"Who is imposing this silence in the Security Council ... at the expense of our people and our martyrs?" the Palestinian leader asked in implicit criticism of the United States.
Arafat vowed that the Intifada, or uprising, against Israel would continue "until the Palestinian flag is hoisted in Jerusalem."
Israel was being "protected" despite "shirking" peace accords signed with the Palestinians, he charged, while the international community was neglecting its duty to send "a protection force or observers" to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A total of 569 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed since the Intifada broke out last September.
Arafat underlined his commitment to "a just and comprehensive peace on all tracks" of the Arab-Israeli conflict, while backing an Egyptian-Jordanian initiative to halt the violence and the Mitchell commission report.
He renewed a call for a new Middle East summit to be held along the same lines as the U.S.-brokered summit last October in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, but this time with the OIC and Russia also invited.
Seeking to close ranks, the Qatari emir said "this meeting is called upon to adopt a unified strategy … to force Israel to end its expansionist policy."
However, the meeting began with a divided front after several countries, including Egypt and some of the Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia, kept their foreign ministers away to protest at the fact that an Israeli trade office was still operating in Doha.
Several countries only agreed to attend the meeting -- with junior ministers -- on the expressed request of the Palestinian Authority, an Arab diplomat told AFP. A total of 46 member states turned up for the session.
Under the pressure of a boycott by key participants because of the Israeli presence in Doha, Qatari authorities announced the closure of the trade office last November on the eve of an OIC summit there.
But it has emerged that the office is still operating.
In a message to the Doha meeting, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called for Muslim countries to contribute towards "a return to negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Mitchell report and Egyptian-Jordanian initiative were a "real opportunity," he said.
But Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa said the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and its predecessors had "never decided on a peace founded on justice and equality."
Libya, meanwhile, called for retaliation against Mauritania for sending its foreign minister to Israel despite an Arab League call for a halt in political contacts with the Jewish state.
In Washington, White House officials told Arab-American community that Israel's use of U.S.-made weapons was "under serious investigation," the Arab American Institute said.
The institute, comprising 13 separate Arab-American organizations, condemned Friday in a statement "Israel's repeated misuse of U.S.-made weapons, including Apache and Cobra helicopters, TOW missiles and F16s against the Palestinian population."
National Security Council Near East Affairs Director Bruce Reidel received the Arab-American leaders Friday at the White House.
Reidel "assured the group that Israel's use of U.S. made weapons is under serious investigation," the statement said.
The White House late Friday refused to comment on the statement.
After Israel's F-16 attacks Sunday on Palestinian targets, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was evasive to reporters questions on the Israeli attacks, saying only: "they should be arrested."
The U.S. Arms Export Control Act calls for foreign purchasers of U.S. weapons to use them for legitimate defense or for internal security only, in accordance with an international accord based on the U.N. charter.
The Arab-American leaders also called on Bush to "give full support to the [retired U.S. Senator and former Northern Ireland peace broker George] Mitchell recommendations on the Middle East crisis in its entirety, and not to back away from the [Jewish] settlement issue" in the Palestinian territories.
|
