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Arab Foreign Ministers Discuss Mideast Crisis
CAIRO, Aug 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Arab foreign ministers and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat met in Cairo Wednesday to discuss the ongoing Israeli violence in the Middle East, news agencies reported.
A statement by the Arab League said the ministers, meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, will attempt to "formulate a unified Arab position on supporting the Palestinian cause and to stop the cycle of Israeli violence against the unarmed Palestinian people," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
They will discuss the "continued Israeli aggression against sacred Islamic and Christian sites, as well as the recent aggression in Jerusalem, Orient House and several other Palestinian institutions," the statement added.
Israeli forces occupied Orient House, the semi-official symbol of Palestinian presence in occupied East Jerusalem, earlier this month.
Arafat met Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key figure in the attempt to bring the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table.
Following the meeting, Arafat said that they had "examined the serious situation stemming from Israeli arrogance," and they expect the talks "to yield greater solidarity with the Palestinian people."
Arafat is expected to submit a report on the situation in the Occupied Territories and on efforts to convince the U.N. Security Council to send international observers into the region.
A plenary session of the ministers will be followed by two closed-door sessions.
Amid continued Israeli aggression, a senior Palestinian official repeated a call Wednesday for international protection for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
The foreign ministers' emergency meeting would "serve as a message to the world community to support a U.N. draft resolution calling for providing international protection to the Palestinians," Ahmed Abdel Rahman, secretary general of the Palestinian cabinet, told the Cairo-based Voice of Arabs radio by phone from the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Abdel Rahman criticized Israel for claiming that the deployment of international observers would mean "internationalizing" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He dismissed it as an "attempt to damage the Mitchell report" that was released in April by an international panel led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell.
The report demands a cooling-off period; that both sides carry out confidence-building measures - including a cessation of the building of illegal Israeli settlements; and the deployment of international observers to the occupied Palestinian territories, which should lead to the resumption of peace talks.
Mohamed Subeih, Palestine's permanent delegate to the Cairo-based Arab League, said that Wednesday's ministerial meeting was aimed at "adopting a unified Arab stance in the face of Israeli brutalities at the Arab and international levels."
Israel has rejected several attempts to deploy international observers to the region. The United States, which has veto power in the Security Council, had blocked two previous attempts to dispatch them, most recently in March.
The meeting's draft also calls for an end to the Israeli occupation of the Orient House and an immediate cessation of violence.
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