Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called Tuesday for an emergency meeting of Arab heads of state, preferably in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, to discuss the escalating Palestinian-Israeli violence, while the Arab foreign ministers' meeting to be held on Thursday might be called off.
In an address to the Arab nation, Saddam urged his counterparts to "promptly convene a summit meeting that would be exclusively devoted to (Israel's) aggression against the Palestinians."
"Let us meet at the Kaaba (the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest site) or any Arab capital where all (Arab leaders) would be present," said Saddam in the speech, which was broadcast on Iraqi state television and radio.
"Let us (meet) in good faith and with an open mind ... and pool our collective resources ... to repel aggression and evil," said the Iraqi leader, who has not attended any Arab summit since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
"It is our duty to stand by the Palestinian people in their current plight, and what each of us has done so far falls short not only of that duty but also of what we are capable of doing if we mean to," Saddam said.
"Saying that this (meeting) can happen (at the time of the regular Arab summit) in March is like telling someone standing on burning charcoal that firefighters will be coming in a few months," he said.
Arab heads of state have held emergency summits "to discuss issues that were not more serious than what is currently happening in Palestine," Saddam said.
"The ... destruction, terrorism, killing and desecration of sanctities by the Zionist entity have reached an unprecedented level ... If evil (Israel) achieves its objectives there, God forbid, this will whet its appetite and (harm) other parts of our big (Arab) homeland," he said.
Saddam's call for an Arab summit came two days after Palestinian president Yasser Arafat appealed for a halt to all Palestinian armed operations against Israel and a return to the negotiating table.
Foreign ministers of Arab League member states are due to hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on Thursday to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Palestinian territories.
However, Arafat also pledged to arrest and punish Islamic activists wanted by Israel for a spate of deadly suicide bombings such as the radical Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
But his speech has drawn mixed reactions in the Arab world, and a senior Arab official in Amman said Tuesday that the foreign ministers' meeting might be called off because of the dissension Arafat's stance has sparked -- AFP
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