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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Divided Arab countries meet to discuss Gaza crisis |
| 2009-01-17 |
| (AKI) - An emergency summit of Arab heads of state was due to take place on Friday in the Qatari capital Doha, as divisions begin to emerge over how to deal with the crisis in Gaza as the Israeli assault against the war-torn territory entered its 21st day. The summit has been organised despite resistance from the Arab League and some key Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government is not attending the meeting in Doha. The 22 member Arab League says the minimum necessary quorum of 15 countries did not materialise to hold a formal Arab Summit. However, Qatar insisted it would go ahead with the initiative. Also on Friday, Arab Foreign Ministers were due to meet in Kuwait to discuss the situation in Gaza, ahead of the economic summit due to be held there on Monday. On Thursday, US-allied Gulf Arab countries representing the Gulf Cooperation Council met in Saudi Arabia to discuss the crisis, ahead of the meeting in Qatar. The parallel meetings signal the divide between US-allied countries, namely some Gulf states, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which oppose the Islamist Hamas movement's rule and other Arab countries such as Syria which support Hamas and its links with Iran and the Lebanese party Hezbollah. Meeting Palestinian officials in the West Bank city of Ramallah, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Israel to declare a unilateral ceasefire. Palestinian medical officials say the Israeli offensive against Gaza has killed 1,105 Palestinians and more than 5,100 have been injured since the offensive began. Thirteen Israelis have been killed in the conflict. Ten of them were soldiers. The Israeli government claims rocket attacks triggered the latest offensive on 27 December and it is working to achieve long-term security for residents threatened by rocket attacks in the south. |
| Posted by:Fred |