Doha Summit Denounces Israel; Qatar, Mauritania Suspend Relations with Israel

January 16, 2009 | Al Manar TV

The blood of more than 1,100 martyrs who have fallen in 21 days of Israel’s savagery against the Palestinians couldn't unite Arabs... On Friday, a Qatari-suggested urgent Arab Summit finally kicked off. The summit, which was postponed for 20 full days due to Arab 'disparities', however failed to reach the needed quorum.

Yet, the summit could see the reaching of a long-awaited decision. Indeed, Qatar and Mauritania decided to "suspend" their relations with Israel, a Mauritanian diplomat declared. Meanwhile, the summit's final statement called for suspending the Arab peace initiative and for ending all forms of normalization with Israel. It denounced Israel and called for an end to the aggression on Gaza, called on the Zionist entity to pull out of Gaza and open all crossings entry of all humanitarian aid.

The Arab leaders also called for inter-Palestinian reconciliation and decided to establish a special fund for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. Speaking to reporters following the summit, Qatari Prime Minister reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has informed him that he had been pressured to abstain from the Doha Summit.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Ben Khalifa addressed the Arab leaders during the opening session, stressing on the urgent need to halt the Israeli aggression on Gaza and to open crossing. "We would have loved to see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas here but he apologized," Sheikh Hamad noted.

Sheikh Hamad also praised, following Lebanese President's speech, the Lebanese Army and Resistance for the major role they have played in the battle against the Israeli enemy.

For his part, Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal addressed the attendees, stressing that the Palestinian Resistance movement would not accept Israel's terms for a Gaza truce. "I assure you: despite all the destruction in Gaza, we will not accept Israel's conditions for a ceasefire," he declared, calling on Arabs to rely on the Resistance.

Syrian President Bachar al-Assad addressed in turn the Arab leaders and stressed that the problem does not only lie in the occupation, but in the nature of the enemy, noting that Israel has actually built itself on massacres and only speaks the language of blood. He called for all Arab countries with ties to the Zionist entity to cut them and shut its embassies. "Syria has decided to suspend peace negotiations for an unspecified period of time," he also noted.

While warning that Israel wanted its war in Gaza to be a turning point in the history of its struggle with the Arabs, Assad expressed belief that the Arab peace initiative was already dead.

For his part, Lebanese President Michel Sleiman called the Arab leaders to set a clear and comprehensive strategy on how to deal with the Israeli enemy and oblige it to implement the Arab Peace Initiative. He called on them to be active and take practical measures to ensure a ceasefire, reconstruction plan and the spirit needed to make it through.

"Arab unity, as well as Palestinian unity, is more important than the location of holding an Arab summit," Suleiman noted, stressing that the Doha meeting wasn't aimed at consolidating divisions among Arabs. "Lebanon is ready to bring together the Arab stance," the Lebanese President emphasized. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called for international pressure on Israel to halt its offensive against the Palestinians.

He called on Arab states to reconsider their stances, noting that the Palestinian cause should remain the central one. "The best we can offer to Gaza is the humanitarian and material support," he noted. Comoros

President Ahmad Abdallah Sambi said that what is happening now in the Gaza Strip is considered war crimes. He called on Arab leaders to support Gazans through action and not only through speeches. "Gaza was a prison, and now became a cemetery for Arabs and Muslims," he emphasized.

Qatar has been pressing for an emergency Arab summit on the Gaza crisis since the first day of the Israeli aggression on December 27. But it has repeatedly run into opposition mainly from Egypt and Saudi Arabia. And it's in this context that some Arab States didn't feel embarrassed to announce their rejection to the principle of the holding the summit, others simply said that the summit is 'inappropriate' while a third group proudly said that there is an 'already scheduled' economic summit next week, and Gaza would be discussed on its sidelines.

Why shouldn’t they, if the Palestinian President himself did not attend the Doha summit? Mahmoud Abbas, whose term expired on January 9, was among the firsts to "welcome" the Qatari invitation for the summit, however he “apologized” later.

In contrast, Palestinian Resistance leaders are present in Qatar. Meanwhile, the official Qatar News Agency said that the leaders of Algeria, Comoros, Lebanon, Mauritania, Sudan and Syria were attending the summit while Djibouti, Iraq and Libya had sent senior officials. Non-Arab Iran and Turkey were also taking part with Tehran represented by its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ankara sending an aide to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who was in Doha for the meeting, said that the summit was "the fruit of Qatari, Arab, Syrian and Islamic determination ... in defiance of the all the pressures exercised to prevent it."

Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who was pressured to boycott the Doha summit according to well-informed sources, acknowledged that there was "chaos" in Arab ranks over the Gaza crisis as Arab foreign ministers gathered in Kuwait City for a separate meeting. The "Arab situation is in a very big chaos," Mussa told reporters as he entered the talks, which began two hours late. "It is regrettable and harmful," he added.