CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Kuwait on the Gaza Strip conflict later this week, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Monday.
Friday s meeting will examine the developments relating to Israel s refusal to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1860 calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, he told reporters.
The Gulf state of Qatar on Sunday had requested such a meeting.
But hours after Moussa s announcement, Qatar issued a new call for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the worsening situation in the Gaza Strip.
Qatar… has called for an emergency Arab summit to take place on Friday in Doha, the Qatari News Agency quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani as saying.
Sheikh Hamad said it was urgent that Arab leaders meet because of the barbaric aggression on the Gaza Strip, the agency reported.
It was the third such call to be made by the tiny Gulf state since Israel launched its offensive on December 27, but an emergency summit was not held because some states, such as Egypt, were not in favor.
Arab governments are divided in their stance towards Hamas, which took control of Gaza in a coup against president Mahmoud Abbas s Palestinian Authority in June 2007.
Israel has rejected the UN ceasefire resolution, calling it impracticable and demanding an end to Hamas rocket fire into Israel and the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
Hamas has said it would not accept any truce that did not lift Israel s blockade of the Gaza Strip and has called on Egypt to permanently open its Rafah border crossing with the Palestinian enclave.
Israel said it launched its offensive on Gaza to stamp out rocket attacks from the densely populated territory. -AFP
