Arabs appeal for protection force for Palestinians, slam US embassy move

by Mona Salem

CAIRO, - Arab foreign ministers renewed an appeal here Monday for an international protection force for the Palestinians and warned the United States against moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The foreign ministers were meeting at Arab League headquarters to prepare for an Arab summit in Amman on March 27, which is expected to focus on the Palestinian uprising against Israel and the crumbling UN sanctions on Iraq.

"Arab countries together address the United Nations Security Council, asking it to meet immediately to study ways to set up an international force to protect the Palestinian people," the Arab League said in a statement.

"Arab ministers have (also) decided to make direct contact with the United States, Russia and the European Union, to ask them to take a stand against Israeli measures, especially the blockade of the territories," it added.

Israel has imposed a military blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the latest Palestinian uprising erupted on September 28, preventing Palestinians from working in Israel and taking a heavy economic toll on them.

The appeal for a protection force follows a similar one issued at the last Arab summit here in Cairo on October 21-22, and amounted to a diplomatic challenge to Israel.

Israeli radio reported Monday that Israel's hardline Prime Minister Ariel Sharon set down efforts to "prevent an internationalization of the conflict" as one of the five priorities for his new government. Senior Palestinian official Faruq Qaddumi meanwhile denounced "Israel's arbitrary and dangerous military actions," which are "dividing the West Bank into 40 parts, and the Gaza Strip into five parts."

The secretary general of the Arab League, Esmat Abdel Meguid, opened the meeting here warning the United States and other countries against moving their embassies in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. "The United States, Russia, the European Union, all countries in the world, as well as international and regional organizations, should expect disastrous consequences for the region and for the interests of all the countries of the world in the region, if embassies are moved to Jerusalem," Abdel Meguid said.

Jerusalem has already proven to be an explosive issue.

The uprising started after Sharon, before his election last month as prime minister, visited a site holy to both Jews and Muslims in September in a move seen as pressing an Israeli claim to the entire city.

The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. Arab officials say that under UN Resolutions 242 and 338, east Jerusalem is part of the occupied territories, and that under Security Council Resolution 478 any measure that affects the holy city's status is illegal.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell, when questioned in Congress last Wednesday, said President George W. Bush was committed to moving "the embassy to the capital of Israel, which is Jerusalem."

Some 435 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed in more than five months of bloodletting. On Iraq, Esmat Abdel Meguid said "the Arab nation's obligation is to work toward ending the suffering of the Iraqi people and obtain an end to the military actions against Iraq, which occur outside the UN framework."

He was referring to frequent air strikes US and British pilots have staged in the last two years against Iraqi anti-aircraft and other targets which Washington and London say are threatening the enforcement of no-fly zones.

The allies set up the air exclusion zones after the 1991 Gulf war, but they have no specific UN authorisation.