ARAB SUMMIT:KUWAIT – President Mahmoud Abbas urged feuding Palestinian factions yesterday to form a unity government to pave the way for elections.
“What is required, if we were to agree . . . is a national unity government that undertakes . . . lifting the blockade [of Gaza], opening the crossings, reconstruction and holding simultaneous presidential and legislative elections,” Mr Abbas said, calling for reconciliation talks to begin immediately in Egypt.
Hamas, which won 2006 elections, wrested control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s Fatah faction in 2007. Abbas, still in control of the West Bank, is backed by the West but is seen as weak by leaders of some Arab states, such as Syria.
The fault line among the Arabs dominated the opening of an Arab summit in Kuwait yesterday.
Syria, a main backer of Hamas, urged the summit to declare Israel a “terrorist entity” over the Gaza offensive, calling on Israel to open border crossings and end its blockade of the enclave.
“We should show our clear support for the Palestinian resistance,” Syrian president Bashar al-Assad said. “I suggest this summit officially call the Zionist entity a terrorist entity.”
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak said, however, that Hamas had invited the Israeli attack by refusing to extend a truce and must bear responsibility. He accused some parties of exploiting the crisis in Gaza to divide the Arab world into a moderate and more hardline camp.
Egypt negotiated with both Hamas and Israel, which both announced ceasefires at the weekend.
However, Cairo has been criticised in the Arab world for co-operating with the Israeli blockade of Gaza in recent months and not fully opening its border during the Israeli offensive.
In a move to restore unity, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia hosted a lunch attended by the leaders of Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Kuwait at which they agreed to patch up their differences over Gaza, Qatar’s prime minister said.
Leaders were also expected to back plans to set up a $2 billion fund to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip. King Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would donate $1 billion to the fund in an opening speech that called on Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular to unite.
Participants in Kuwait had hoped the summit would narrow the divides exposed by a meeting in Doha last week, where Qatar and Mauritania froze ties with Israel while Syria, which broke off indirect peace talks after the Gaza offensive, pronounced a 2002 Arab peace initiative dead. King Abdullah said the initiative was still on the table but the Jewish state should not expect it to stay there forever. – (Reuters)