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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Arabs talk Gaza reconstruction amid bombings |
| 2009-01-13 |
| Arab leaders are scheduled to meet and discuss reconstruction in the bombarded and blockaded Gaza Strip in their first economic summit. Speaking at a news conference in Kuwait City on Monday, the adviser to Kuwait's emir and head of the summit's media committee, Mohammad Abulhassan, said the summit will discuss the reconstruction of Gaza. He noted that all Arab states have announced they will participate in the economic summit, and so far, no Arab country has notified the host nation it will not attend. The January 19-20 summit seeks out ways to upgrade economic integration among Arabs. On Monday, Arab League chief Amr Moussa declared that a long delayed emergency Arab foreign ministerial meeting on the Gaza conflict is planned to be held in Kuwait on Friday. This is while Arab leaders have been blamed, almost as much as Israel, for the plight of the people of Gaza. Top of the list is Egypt, which many feel gave Israel the green light to attack the enclave. Many in the Arab world believe that Egypt's insistence on maintaining the Rafah border closure during the Israeli military operation is akin to collaborating with Israel. Strengthening that perception was the fact that Mubarak met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo shortly before Israel's offensive. Also, more anger is reserved for Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the secular Palestinian Fatah faction, who would like to wrest control of Gaza from the elected Hamas government. Arab governments such as Jordan and Mauritania, who are on friendly diplomatic terms with Israel, come in for yet more criticism. Finally, anger is in addition vented at the wealthy Arab governments, like Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf littoral countries, which could potentially do more to resolve the Palestinian issue, but do little or nothing. Since Israel unleashed its air and sea campaign against Gaza on December 27, at least 919 Palestinians have lost their lives and more than 4,100 others - most of whom are civilians - have been injured. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Arabs talking about reconstruction. Key word is "talking". |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-01-13 06:32 |
| #1 Uncle grom fix. Amid falling oil prices, Arabs talk Gaza reconstruction. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-01-13 06:05 |