CAIRO: Arab League representatives gathered in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of holding an extraordinary summit over Israel s offensive in Lebanon. The pan-Arab body s secretary general, Amr Moussa, said on Monday that eight members, Yemen, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority, Sudan, Algeria, Qatar, Lebanon and Djibouti had already expressed support for a meeting of the 22 heads of state. An extraordinary summit has to be approved by a two-thirds majority.
In Bahrain on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmad al-Khalifa said his country supported holding a league summit, and condemned Israel s onslaught against Lebanon as an overt breach of international law. What is happening in Lebanon now does not please anyone and represents an overt breach of international law, he told reporters. No one could match Israel s criminality against Lebanon, he said. But he also questioned whether Hezbollah s operation which led it to capturing two Israeli soldiers was well calculated in assessing the win and the loss. We are dealing with an enemy that does not adhere to morals, nor conventions or international law, he added. Arab foreign ministers had convened on Saturday to discuss the escalation of Israel s punishing land, sea and air offensive against Lebanon following the July 12 capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Hezbollah militia. After the meeting, the bloc admitted it was impotent in the face of Israel s deadly retaliation against the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Egypt had called for an emergency Arab summit in the run-up to the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq but the 22 members failed to agree and the league dropped its plans. AFP
