CAIRO, 7 April — Arab states yesterday backed the pursuit of the “legitimate Palestinian resistance” against Israeli forces and asked the UN Security Council to force Israel to implement resolutions that call for its withdrawal from Palestinian territories.
The appeal issued in a final statement of an emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting came as Israel reacted coolly to US President George W. Bush’s call for a halt to its offensive on the West Bank.
In an unusually strong statement, the delegates to the 22-member Arab League meeting said they welcome “the intifada (uprising) of the Palestinian people and support its legitimate resistance against the Israeli occupation forces.”
The statement, following a mounting wave of Arab street protests demanding tough Arab action against Israel, said “the continuation of the Israeli occupation and the escalation of its oppressive practices demands the continuation of the resistance.”
Outside Arab League headquarters, dozens of Egyptians staged another protest demanding a rupture in Arab ties with Israel and the United States as well as the revival of the Arab oil embargo.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said that Arab ambassadors at the UN have been asked to seek an “immediate” meeting of the Security Council to examine the escalation in the West Bank. Such a meeting was necessary “following reports of more than 100 martyrs today,” Moussa told a press conference.
Kuwait’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Al-Sabah, told a press conference during the emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting that he had “received a telephone call from President Arafat who assured him that the legendary resistance of his people will continue against the Israeli invasion in Nablus and Jenin.” The foreign ministers met here at the request of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority to approve measures to support the Palestinians facing Israel’s nine-day-old military offensive in the West Bank.
Palestinian International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath said the ministers would tell US Secretary of State Colin Powell, due in the region soon, to meet with Arafat during that trip.
“All the ministers said they will tell Powell that President Arafat is the sole representative of the Palestinian people,” Shaath told a press briefing earlier.
The Arabs fear the United States backs Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s apparent drive to send Arafat into exile, as Israel’s deadly offensive in the West Bank and siege of Arafat’s headquarters enter their ninth day.
Shaath also asked for “the support of Arab countries to protect Arafat, the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, at a moment when Israel, backed by the United States, wants to give itself the right to choose who represents or does not represent the Palestinian people.”
Earlier yesterday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal discussed Israel’s military offensive in the West Bank yesterday, presidential sources said in Cairo.
