KUWAIT CITY/DOHA: Arab League chief Amr Moussa acknowledged chaos in Arab ranks over the Gaza crisis on Friday as foreign ministers gathered in Kuwait for a meeting overshadowed by an unofficial summit in Qatar.
Qatar pressed ahead with the summit Friday on Israel s deadly offensive against Gaza over the objections of the Palestinian leadership and regional heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Hamas movement which controls Gaza, was in the Qatari capital Doha for the meeting as were other Israeli arch foes including Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On the other hand, Moussa told reporters as he entered the meeting in Kuwait city that the Arab situation is in a very big chaos, after the meeting was delayed for two hours.
“It is regrettable and harmful.
The ministers’ meeting was supposed to prepare for an Arab summit on Gaza due to convene alongside a long-scheduled economic summit in Kuwait City on Monday.
Ministers discussed “steps that should be taken after Israel rejected UN Security Council Resolution 1860, that called for an immediate ceasefire, delegates said.
Saudi Foreign Minister Price Saud Al-Faisal called on the meeting to “look into the possibility of going back to the Security Council to try and issue another resolution to enforce ceasefire.
In a speech delivered during the closed-door session and obtained by AFP, Prince Saud also proposed the setting up of an Arab fund for the rebuilding of Gaza.
He called for no effort to be spared to stop the war on Gaza “because if it continues, it will have dangerous and far-reaching implications and consequences.
The Saudi minister also called on Arab countries to “start a serious and comprehensive dialogue with the new US administration, after President-elect Barack Obama takes office on Jan. 20.
In Qatar, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad called on Friday for all Arab countries with diplomatic ties to Israel to close their embassies in the Jewish state.
He called for “cutting all direct and indirect ties with Israel, and shutting down its embassies.
Assad said his country had halted unofficial peace talks with Israel indefinitely, and that he considered the Arab peace initiative dead.
In response to Syrian, Iranian and Hamas leaders’ calls, Qatar and Mauritania decided to “suspend their relations with Israel, a Mauritanian diplomat told AFP.
“Mauritania and Qatar have decided during a meeting behind closed doors to suspend their ties with Israel, the diplomat, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
Qatar has hosted an Israeli trade bureau since 1996, while Mauritania has had diplomatic ties with the Jewish state since 1999. Mauritania called back its ambassador in Israel in the wake of the attacks Israel launched on the Gaza Strip on Dec. 27.
Qatar has been pressing for an emergency Arab summit on the Gaza crisis since soon after Israel launched its offensive.
But it has repeatedly run into opposition from Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which have been strongly critical of Hamas ever since the group seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas in June 2007.
The opposition of Egypt and Saudi Arabia ensured that the Qatari gathering was not an official meeting of the Arab League but several non-Arab countries including Iran and Turkey were invited. -AFP
