SPAIN: Spain, as current holder of the European Union presidency, yesterday summoned the Israeli ambassador to Madrid to demand Israel's withdrawal from Palestinian cities and freedom of movement for the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, called for a UN rights mission to be sent immediately to the Palestinian territories. In an emotional appeal to the Human Rights Commission, she also repeated calls for the establishment of an international monitoring presence in the region.
Mrs Robinson told the commission - which is currently holding its annual session in Geneva - that it could not stand by while the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories escalated.
"I say to you simply but with all the force I can: I call you to conscience," she said.
As diplomatic pressure on Israel increased, the EU called on the Israelis to grant foreign diplomats, especially those of the EU, free access to Mr Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
The Spanish Foreign Minister, Mr Josep Piqué, announced that he was summoning the ambassador following a meeting in Madrid with his Russian counterpart, Mr Igor Ivanov, and the EU foreign policy envoy, Mr Javier Solana.
Mr Solana said the EU was asking Israel "to comply as soon as possible" with the UN Security Council resolution approved last Saturday, which calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
"We cannot confuse the fight against terrorism with the destruction of the Palestinian Authority," he said. "The solution to the conflict is not a military solution."
Mr Solana said it might be time for the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, and Mr Arafat to give way to a new generation of leaders. He said he believed Israel's military reoccupation of Palestinian cities would make the situation worse, and should be reversed.
Mr Ivanov said Russia's position on the Middle East "coincides almost precisely" with that of the European Union.
Israel's military offensive is straining relations with its chief regional ally, Turkey. Ankara called yesterday for an international conference to inaugurate a new peace process. "There is a need to make a new opening" on the basis of the Madrid and Oslo peace processes, the Foreign Minister, Mr Ismail Cem, told parliament in a special session.
Meanwhile, foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference meeting in Kuala Lumpur, rejected attempts to associate Islam with terrorism, saying that to do so impeded the global struggle against terror. They also rejected attempts to equate the Palestinian fight against Israel with terrorism.
The conference failed in one of its aims, to define terrorism, and referred the task to the UN.
However, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mr Mahathir Mohamad, long a supporter of the Palestinian cause, said any attack on civilians, including those by Palestinian suicide bombers, should be classified as acts of terror.
The members ruled out support for unilateral action against any of their number in the US-led "war on terrorism".
Demonstrations took place in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan against Israeli actions in Palestinian areas.