Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Thursday that Arab states were consulting each other over a meeting planned before the weekend to back Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, after Israel considered him ‘irrelevant.’
"Consultations are under way for holding an Arab meeting very soon," Maher told journalists, saying it could be of the Arab League follow-up committee on Palestinian issues, "or at another level."
If it takes place it will be before the celebration of the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, on Saturday or Sunday, he said, as quoted by AFP.
"If it is not possible to hold this meeting, we will consult each other on measures to take immediately," Maher added.
"There is great anger and great determination to support Yasser Arafat", he said.
The Israeli government announced overnight that it was severing all ties with Arafat, calling him "irrelevant," and pledging to go into Palestinian areas itself to hunt down "terrorists."
The move, accompanied by fierce air strikes on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, followed an attack by Palestinian militants on a bus which killed 10 Israeli settlers near Nablus.
The Arab foreign ministers put off indefinitely an urgency meeting scheduled for last Sunday to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian lands, and met on the sidelines of a Doha ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Monday – Albawaba.com
