JEDDAH/DAMASCUS, 31 July — Saudi Arabia yesterday blasted as “flagrant Israeli provocation” the laying of a cornerstone for a third Jewish temple at the Haram Al-Sharif in occupied Jerusalem by Jewish extremists and called for global action to stop Israeli violations.
“The Kingdom condemns the continuing flagrant Israeli provocations and the violation of holy Muslim sites in Jerusalem,” Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd said while addressing the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jeddah. He said “Israel’s actions are contrary to all international conventions and will contribute to a deterioration of the present explosive situation for which Israel assumes responsibility.”
The king called on UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the permanent members of the UN Security Council to “shoulder their responsibilities and intervene immediately to put an end to Israeli aggressions.” On Sunday, a group of extremist Jews laid the cornerstone in a brief ceremony by a gate to Jerusalem’s walled Old City, stirring a storm of protests in the Arab world and clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police.
The Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) warned that the laying of the cornerstone by the ultranationalist group, the Temple Mount Faithful, could cause an “explosive situation” in the Middle East. Qatar as current chairman of the 57-member OIC condemned it as a “provocation” and “aggression against the Muslim holy sites” and urged the US and Russian sponsors of the region’s dormant peace process and the European Union to intervene.
Syria’s Mufti, Sheikh Ahmad Kaftaro, told Arab leaders, “the Zionists have proclaimed their determination to lay the first stone of their so-called temple in the heart of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, control and destroy Islam’s third holy place.” “The Al-Aqsa Mosque calls you and calls on your conscience,” the 86-year-old mufti said, urging “decisions and concrete action.”
In Damascus, 13 Arab countries met yesterday for the second day to bolster the Muslim world’s economic boycott of Israel. “We want to reactivate the boycott so that it constitutes an instrument of peaceful resistance with the aim of pushing Israel back to reason,” said Ahmad Khazaa, head of the Arab League’s central boycott office.
Against the backdrop of the 10-month Palestinian uprising, the first large-scale gathering of the Damascus-based Central Office for the Boycott of Israel (OBI) in eight years studied a plan to reopen boycott offices in all 22 members states of the Arab League. The blueprint also calls for blacklists of Israeli firms and foreign companies doing business with the Jewish state to be published every six months and for fresh boycott meetings to be held twice a year. “There is total agreement. There are not any problems,” Khazaa told reporters.
