Palestinians Repeat Call for International ProtectionA senior Palestinian official repeated a call on Wednesday for international protection of the Palestinians in the occupied territories amid continued Israeli aggressions.An emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers, to be held in Cairo later in the day, would "serve as a message to the world community to support a U.N. draft resolution calling for providing international protection to the Palestinians," Ahmed Abdel Rahman, secretary general of the Palestinian cabinet, told the Cairo-based Voice of Arabs radio by phone from the West Bank city of Ramallah. Abdel Rahman criticized Israel for claiming that deploying international observers would mean "internationalizing" the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He spoke highly of Egypt's stance at the international level on helping end escalating Israeli attacks on the Palestinians. He dismissed as an "attempt to damage the Mitchell report" an initiative put forward by Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres on easing the current situation in phases. The Mitchell report, released in May by an international panel led by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, demands both sides to carry out confidence-building measures after a cooling-off period, and finally resume their peace talks. Mohamed Subeih, Palestinian permanent delegate to the Cairo- based Arab League, has said that Wednesday's ministerial meeting is aimed at "adopting a unified Arab stance in the face of Israeli brutalities at the Arab and international levels." Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who arrived here late Tuesday for the meeting, is expected to present a detailed report to the participants on the "tragic conditions" in the occupied territories, Subeih added. The Middle East has been rocked by deadly clashes between the Palestinians and Israelis since last September, in which over 700 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed. |
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