Arabs ask US to push Israeli ally on settlements

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121872§ionid=351020202


Arab leaders again resort to Washington to urge its closest ally Israel on halting settlement projects, ruling out 'peace talks' as long as settlement expansions continue.

In a final statement after a two-day summit, the leaders stressed "their total rejection of the settlement policy carried out by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories," calling on US President Barack Obama to pressure Israel to completely halt settlements.

Israeli settlement policy poses "a dangerous obstacle to a just and comprehensive peace process," said the resolution of the summit held in the Libyan coastal city of Sirte.

The two-day meeting was attended by 14 leaders of the 22-member Arab League, many of whom have already said they are convinced that indirect talks between the Tel Aviv regime and the Palestinians would end up nowhere.

Earlier this month, the Israeli regime announced plans to build 1,600 new settlement units in annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds, viewed by Palestinians as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

The announcement smothered US-sponsored "proximity talks" with the Palestinians, negotiations that had also enjoyed the backing of Arab leaders.

Conditions further deteriorated when Tel Aviv fueled more tensions by reopening a synagogue close to the highly revered al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of East al-Quds, drawing wide-spread alarms of an Israeli scheme to demolish the occupied city's Islamic sites in an effort to Judaize the region.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani urged the global community on Friday to "accept its responsibilities." For the first time, he also called for international sanctions against the Israeli regime, which, al-Thani said "behaves as if it has immunity."

The monitoring committee of the Arab peace has conditioned the resumption of peace talks to a freeze on Israeli settlement building and an immediate reversal of the decision to build 1,600 new settlement units.

Hisham Yussef, a senior Arab League official, said there were several options for a new Arab strategy towards a defiant Israel.

"Some talk of war, others talk of armed resistance or pacifist resistance," he said, also noting the alternative option of "going to the UN Security Council to get an agreement imposed on the parties."

"It's time for the Security Council resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be dealt with under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter" that calls for more pressure when international peace is threatened, said Yussef.