Arabs expressed frustration Sunday at their countries' inability to help besieged Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Pro-Palestinian protests took place in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Oman and Sudan. In Mauritania, police fired tear gas to disperse thousands who denounced Israel and accused the United States of backing Israel, reported AP.
Arabs have demonstrated every day since Friday, when Israeli troops took control of the West Bank city of Ramallah. Arafat has since been confined in his office building by Israeli troops, while Israeli forces battle Palestinians in the city and round up hundreds of Palestinian men from their homes.
Arab governments have been demanding the United States, the United Nations and European leaders to take action.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II of Jordan called U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and discussed ways to "provide protection to the Palestinian people" and force Israel to end the siege on Arafat, the official Petra news agency reported.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher told the Israeli ambassador in Amman on Sunday that Jordan would take unspecified measures unless the attack on Arafat ended.
Jordan's options included further downgrading its representation in Israel, asking the Israeli ambassador to leave, or cutting or suspending ties.
On Sunday, Egyptian protesters called for their government to send the Israeli ambassador in Cairo home. Egyptian authorities have rejected cutting such links, saying they form an important avenue to Israeli decision-makers.
Egypt hit out at the American refusal to condemn Israel's assault on Yasser Arafat's compound. "We were hoping that the United States would adopt a strong position since the start of this Israeli attack against the Palestinians but we have not seen any such position," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said in a television interview.
"Admittedly, the United States cannot or does not want to put pressure on Israel, but Israel needs someone to save it from itself," Maher said. "I cannot imagine that the United States can stay silent in the face of these Israeli actions without saying: enough, enough, enough."
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein said his hands were tied. "You well know that we will do anything possible to help you remain steadfast and lead you to victory but you know that we are fighting on other fronts ... and you also know the geography factor," Iraq's state news agency quoted Saddam as saying Sunday.
Iraq fears a potential U.S. attack after Washington accused it of sponsoring terrorists and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Jordan, which lies between Iraq and the Palestinian areas, is unlikely to allow Saddam to send forces across its territory.
The Lebanese group Hizbullah, which has called on Arab nations to help the Palestinian uprising, said Israel was encouraged to attack the Palestinians by the Arab League's approval Thursday of a comprehensive peace offer to Israel.
"When the response to (Israeli) massacres is more (peace) initiatives, the Israeli response will be more killing," Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in speech to his followers in Baalbek, Lebanon.
"[Israeli Prime Minister Ariel] Sharon is now not humiliating only Arafat. He is not targeting one person. It is a humiliation for a whole nation," Nasrallah said. Hizbullah leader strongly criticized Arab leaders for not doing more to help the Palestinians.
"We know they will not declare war against Israel, and when Sharon threatens, he knows that [Arab] regimes will not do anything more than talk," Nasrallah said. "There are people who only care about their thrones," he said of Arab statesmen. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
