GAZA, CAIRO, (Islamweb & Agencies)-In the face of on-going occupation troop mobilization in the West Bank, Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat has called for an Emergency Arab Summit meeting to discuss mounting Israeli escalation against his people. In Cairo, where Arafat was recently consulting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian leader, for his part, said he glimpsed no hope for a Palestinian-Israeli peace settlement under Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. (Read photo caption).
Arafat told reporters upon his arrival in Gaza City from a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that he was going to study his appeal for an extraordinary Arab summit in detail with Jordan's King Abdullah II in his role as current president of the Arab summit. Arafat underlined an urgent need for such a summit "to confront the Israeli military escalation against the Palestinians."
In Cairo, Mubarak said in an interview published by Egypt's state-run news agency MENA that with Sharon there is no solution. He is a man who knows only murder, strikes and war. Mubarak gave his assessment as confrontations escalated sharply in recent days and Israel has sent in mass reinforcements of tanks and infantry to the West Bank, leaving a US-brokered June 13 truce in tatters.
"By nature, he does not accept peace, and very frankly, I don't believe there is hope with Sharon and his group, which includes extremists," Mubarak said in an interview with the Chinese news agency Xinhua, carried by MENA.
It was the Egyptian leader's strongest attack on Sharon since the Israeli former army general was elected prime minister in February. The Egyptian leadership had initially taken a wait-and-see attitude toward him despite skepticism.
Mubarak, according to the full text of the interview given in Arabic, described as "useless" any dialogue with Sharon's government and blamed it for the failure to restore calm.
Mubarak said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who was here at the weekend and again for a meeting of Arab foreign ministers, had made a "huge effort to lower the level of intifadha confrontations," adding he cannot control 100 percent, the spontaneous outpour of Palestinian anger over Israel's on-going occupation of Palestinian lands.
Arafat had pledged to stop anti-Israeli attacks as part of the US-brokered truce.
The Israeli government expressed dismay at Mubarak's interview.
Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers agreed in the Egyptian capital Wednesday to ask the G8 group of industrial countries, meeting in Rome, to send observers to the territories as well as provide 45 million dollars a month to the Palestinians.
The point was included in a communique ending the meeting in Cairo, along with a pledge from Saudi Arabia to provide 45 million dollars to the Palestinians every month until the end of the year.
An Arab League summit in March decided to send monthly aid until September only.
The Palestinians have complained larger Arab pledges of money have not materialized. They have also repeatedly called in vain for international observers to monitor the violence in the Palestinian territories since it erupted in late September.
Arafat left here saying only "it was a very important meeting."
The ministerial committee was created during the October 2000 Arab summit in Cairo to follow-up on the decisions taken then to support the Palestinians, weeks after the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising.
The Arab League committee groups Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority.
In May, the Arab League foreign ministers called for the suspension of all Arab political contacts with Israel as long as Israeli aggression against the Palestinians continues.
However, waiving the prohibition, Mubarak arranged a meeting here Sunday between Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Arafat in a vain bid to halt the violence.
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and has played a key mediating role. Jordan was, in 1994, the second to make peace with Israel, and so far the last.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (R) meets with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Cairo, July 15, 2001. The two leaders discussed the latest developments in the Middle East and means to put an end to more than nine months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed.. REUTERS/Mona Sharaf