BEIRUT/JEDDAH, 30 March — Arab countries and several European states expressed alarm at the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and Israel’s assault on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters.

Arab states also called yesterday for international help to halt what they called Israel’s “barbarous war” against the Palestinian leadership.

Saudi Arabia strongly denounced the Israeli attacks and urged the international community to take a “responsible stand” to stop the Israeli aggression, “which will drag the region into a bottomless pit of violence and instability.”

Russia also criticized the Israelis but there was no word from US envoy Anthony Zinni, who has been trying for two weeks to broker an Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire.

Lebanon, as chair of the just-concluded Arab summit, strongly condemned the Israeli action and urged the United States, United Nations, Russia and the European Union to intervene. “Only hours after the Arab peace initiative was adopted at the Beirut summit, Israel responded with a barbarous war and an arrogant savage aggression”, a Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement said.

“What Israel is doing confirms again that it is a terrorist state which rejects peace,” the statement added.

“The presidency of the Arab summit denounces in the strongest manner this arrogant aggression,” the statement said. It urged “all those who back the Arab peace initiative to act immediately to deter Israel and its aggression.”

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri spoke with French President Jacques Chirac, who promised to do all he could to help restore calm, a government source said.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov expressed “extreme concern” over the spiralling bloodshed.

“We consider that the policy of isolating Arafat is not the way to find a way out of this situation. We think that through dialogue, including with the Palestinian leader, we should look for a political solution to this crisis,” he added.

The president of the UN Security Council has called an emergency session on the Middle East crisis for Friday at the request of Palestinian and Arab delegates, his spokesman said.

The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) and was called by Norwegian Ambassador Ole Peter Colby, who holds this month’s rotating presidency of the 15-member council.

Earlier, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council in an effort to halt Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinian leadership.

The foreign minister of Qatar, the current chair of the OIC, Sheikh Hamad ibn Jassem ibn Jabr Al-Thani, made the request during a telephone call to his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, the official QNA news agency.

“On behalf of the OIC, I ask Russia, in its capacity as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to convene an emergency council session to examine the grave situation following the Israeli attacks” on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s West Bank base, it quoted Sheikh Hamad as telling Ivanov.

The Qatari foreign minister earlier told Doha-based Al-Jazeera television he had contacted world powers in a bid to halt the Israeli offensive against the West Bank town of Ramallah and asked OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz to get in touch with Muslim states.

“I have asked the OIC secretary-general to contact major Islamic states so as to put a plan — not an urgent meeting, but a practical plan — to stop the Israeli attacks,” Sheikh Hamad told Al-Jazeera.

“I have also begun contacts with the US administration and the rest of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (to ask them) to intervene to halt this operation,” he said.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Al-Jazeera that Arafat “demanded urgent intervention” by the 57-member OIC. Top Palestinian official Farouk Kaddoumi called yesterday on Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to seek the aid of the main world powers to halt Israel’s latest offensive. “Mr Kaddoumi asked Prince Abdullah to intervene with the leading powers to halt the attack on President Arafat and the blood bath in Ramallah,” a Palestinian spokesman said.

The European Union called on Israel yesterday to withdraw its tanks and troops from the Ramallah command compound of Arafat. The EU said it was in touch with both Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres over the latest escalation of the Mideast conflict, while internal consultations on the situation were under way among the EU members.

A senior Palestinian official visiting Japan described Israel’s assault on the West Bank headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a “declaration of war”.

“This is really a declaration of a war on the Palestinian people,” Palestinian Parliamentary speaker Ahmed Qorei told the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK).

“We will not show them a white ... flag to show that we surrender. We are people who have a just cause. We will defend our cause and we will defend our people,” he said.

In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said Israel’s reprisals against the Palestinians were a declaration of war which flew in the face of Arab calls for peace.

“What Sharon is doing is a foolish, illegal action and a message of war and aggression against Arabs in response to a message of peace from the Arabs,” Maher said on his return from Beirut, where he had attended an Arab summit.