Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo Wednesday are reportedly planning to warn the United States and its Western allies that Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories are "unacceptable."
An Arab League official told AFP that the ministers, who are holding a special meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to boost Arab support for the Palestinian cause, will seek to persuade major nations to threaten Israel with economic and political sanctions, he said.
Arafat said in prepared remarks released ahead of the meeting that he hoped Washington would use its "special relationship" with Israel to pressure it into halting its aggression against the Palestinians.
"We are aware of the particular relationship between the United States and Israel, and we have deployed enormous efforts for that relationship to be a factor in pressing the Israeli government to cease its aggression against our people and our holy places," Arafat said.
"We still hope that the American administration will assume its role as a sponsor of the peace process," he said.
The Arab league official said the gathering would "address a clear message to the American administration and its Western partners that Israeli practices in the occupied territories, and especially Jerusalem, are unacceptable."
"We expect the meeting to produce a precise mechanism aimed at putting pressure on American and Western interests, notably the members of the G8 (Group of Eight industrialized nations)... to obtain threats of political and economic sanctions," he said.
Arafat also called on the international community "to assume its responsibilities and send international observers to our territories to apply UN resolutions, the Mitchell report and the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative."
The UN has adopted a number of resolutions calling for Israel to withdraw from territory occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes in what is now Israel.
The Mitchell report and the Egyptian-Jordanian initiative are both recent efforts aimed at bringing a halt to nearly 11 months of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and getting the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Arafat also called for an "international initiative of the UN Security Council," which is meeting for the first on the Middle East since March 27, when the United States vetoed a resolution to send international observers to the Palestinian territories.
Arafat chided the ministers for the lukewarm support their countries had provided so far.
"Two Arab summits since the September 28 beginning of the Palestinian uprising have not had any tangible result except for financial commitments which have only been partially honored," he said.
Ministers were also to 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," an Arab League statement added.
Orient House, the symbol of Palestinian presence in Jerusalem, was occupied by Israeli forces earlier this month as part of a series of reprisals for a devastating suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
The ministers were to issue their statement following the meeting later Wednesday.
The meeting, which came at the request of the Palestinians, was inaugurated by a speech by Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al Thani who said that the meeting should come up of new means to support the Palestinians and protect them from “the Israeli war machine.”
The urgent meeting kicked off after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met separately with Arafat and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al Shara Wednesday to discuss the Middle East conflict.
The official MENA news agency, cited by AFP, reported that Mubarak and Arafat met privately at Mersa Matruh, near the Mediterranean resort of Borg Al Arab, to discuss the "latest developments in the region, notably the latest Israeli escalation in the occupied (Palestinian) territories."
Following those one-on-one talks, the two men were joined by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, senior Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat and Palestinian international cooperation minister Nabil Shaath.
No details were provided on the meeting with Shara, which was also attended by Maher, said the agency.
Arafat is scheduled to arrive in India later Wednesday to brief the Indian government on the growing unrest in the Middle East, officials said.
Foreign ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao said the Palestinian President would hold talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Indian President KR Narayanan on Thursday.
Arafat, who is flying into New Delhi at around 10:30pm (1700 GMT) after attending a conference of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, will leave for China on Thursday with a brief stopover in Pakistan.
"He is coming here to brief us on the prevailing situation of the Middle East region," Rao said.
Successive Indian governments have given unwavering support to Arafat, but New Delhi also has warming relations with Israel, with which it established diplomatic relations in 1992 – Albawaba.com
