Mubarak says Israel is fighting a losing battle
CAIRO: The Arab League said on Saturday after an emergency meeting of foreign ministers that the Middle East peace process had failed and called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop the escalating violence. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa announced the decision following a heated closed-door session in Cairo aimed at finding a way to end a widening Israeli offensive on Lebanon and attacks in the Palestinian territories. We all decided that the peace process has failed and that the mechanisms, proposals and committees were either deceptive or sedatives or contrary to the peace process, or handed the process over as a gift to Israeli diplomacy to do with as it wished, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said. This has led to and is leading to the collapse of stability in the Middle East … So there is no peace process, he added. Speaking to reporters at the 22-member Arab League headquarters in the Egyptian capital, Moussa said the group would turn to the UN Security Council for help. So we take it back to the United Nations, and maybe the date will be in September, he said. Beirut had urged the UN Security Council to tell Israel to halt its operation, but the Council took no immediate action. The ministers adopted a resolution supporting Lebanon and the Palestinians, but also called on all parties to avoid actions that may undermine peace and security in the region. But ministers traded barbs over whether Lebanese group Hezbollah bore any responsibility for the escalation in violence that followed its capture of two Israeli soldiers.
President Hosni Mubarak warned Israel Sunday it was fighting a losing battle by continuing its offensive in Lebanon and called for an immediate ceasefire, the official MENA news agency reported. Israel will not come out the winner in this war and it will only create more enmity against it, Mubarak was quoted as saying. The Egyptian leader called for an immediate ceasefire and stressed that it is up to Israel to stop the killing and the destruction against the defenseless Lebanese people.
As the ministers met, Israeli forces hit targets in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian militants hold a third Israeli soldier. Arab diplomats who attended the closed session said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, whose country has been critical of Hezbollah, accused Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem of devilish dreams. Arab unity is the most important stance that should be taken, and unfortunately I feel I am not hearing those words from Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Moualem was reported to have said. How can we come here to discuss the burning situation in Lebanon while others are making statements criticizing the resistance? asked Moualem. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Salem Al-Sabah responded, saying that Moualem s dreams were rosy but echoed Saudi Arabia s rare criticism of Hezbollah, the diplomats said.
Earlier, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh presented his fellow Arab League members with a draft resolution condemning Israel s military offensive and supporting Lebanon s right to resist occupation by all legitimate means, language frequently used by Hezbollah to justify its militants presence in south Lebanon.
The draft, a copy of which obtained by The Associated Press, also demanded the release of Lebanese captives and detainees in Israeli prisons, and supported Lebanon s right to liberate them by all legitimate means.
Salloukh, a Shiite close to the mainstream Amal faction as well as the militant Hezbollah, said Arab governments were not doing enough to protest Israel s assault on Lebanon.
What our Arab brothers have called involvement has only resulted in frustration and bitterness among Arab people, Salloukh told participants at the meeting Saturday.
If [Arab] governments are not serious and determined … our people will sooner or later take things into their own hands, he said.
Israel expanded its military offensive Friday, striking Lebanon s northernmost city, Tripoli, and hitting the heart of Beirut for the first time. Hezbollah has responded by launching hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In Kuwait, Saad Hariri, head of the anti-Syrian bloc in Lebanon s parliament, told reporters that his country should not become a playground for Mideast fighting.
Israel has to understand that Lebanon is not a terrorist state but a state fighting for freedom, and the Lebanese have to unite and stay united, Hariri said.
Some 200 people demonstrated in front of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait on Saturday, waving yellow Hezbollah flags and posters of militant leaders.
Palestinian factions issued a statement Saturday calling on Arab foreign ministers to overcome their differences, and take a united Arab position pressuring the American administration to amend its pro-Israel position, boycott Israel and support the steadfastness and resistance of the Lebanese and Palestinian people.
The groups, Islamic and secular, called on Arab governments to push for UN-sponsored negotiations to release Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners as well as the captured Israeli soldiers.
U.S. President George W. Bush blamed Hezbollah for the violence and called on Syria to exert its influence to persuade the Shiite group to stop attacks on Israel. Israel s Lebanon campaign, launched after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight on Wednesday, has killed at least 103 people, all but four civilians. Agencies
