SIRTE: Arab leaders gather for an annual summit in Libya at the weekend determined to “rescue Jerusalem as Israel defies international calls for a settlement freeze in the Holy City.
The summit will be the first to be hosted by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and is expected also to discuss Sudan where President Omar Al-Beshir, who is facing an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes, is seeking re-election.
The Middle East peace process is likely to dominate the summit that opens on Saturday in the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte.
Israel has infuriated Palestinian and other Arab leaders as well as the wider international community with plans to expand Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
Its US ally warned the plans would derail its efforts to revive peace talks with the Palestinians amid a rise of violence in and around Jerusalem in recent days.
In the run-up to the summit, the head of the 22-member Arab League Amr Moussa called for all talks with the Jewish state, direct or indirect, to be suspended.
“Negotiations with Israel at this time are pointless, he said.
His deputy Ahmed Ben Helli said on Tuesday that Arab foreign ministers would draft a resolution outlining measures “to rescue Jerusalem from being Judaised.
The draft will be discussed at a preparatory ministers’ meeting in Sirte on Thursday before being submitted to heads of state for approval.
Arab diplomats said the aim is to set up a commission to record Israeli “violations in east Jerusalem for subsequent referral to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Israel has refused to go back on its announcement of 1,600 new homes for settlers in east Jerusalem despite strong opposition from its US ally.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the timing of the announcement – during a visit by Vice President Joe Biden on March 9 aimed at promoting US-brokered indirect peace negotiations with the Palestinians – as insulting.
But after White House talks on Tuesday, Israel s hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant, insisting that it was Palestinian opposition to settlement construction not the building work itself that was the obstacle to resumed peace talks.
If the Americans support the unreasonable demands made by the Palestinians regarding a freeze on settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the peace process risks being blocked for a year, Netanyahu said.
Relations between Israel and the United States should not be hostage to differences between the two countries over the peace process with the Palestinians, he added.
Further riling the Palestinians, Israeli media reported that municipal authorities had approved a plan to build a further 20 homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem.
The so-called Quartet of major players in the Middle East peace process – the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States – issued a statement last Friday calling on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth.
But the Palestinians have come under mounting US pressure to enter indirect peace negotiations as soon as possible regardless of Israel s defiance on the settlement issue.
Regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia said on Wednesday that Israel s stubbornness made the idea of renewed negotiations unrealistic and said it would be seeking clarifications from the Quartet.
Netanyahu s remarks cast doubts on the peace process as a whole and on the seriousness of ongoing international efforts to start negotiations, the state Saudi Press Agency quoted an official as saying.
However past Arab summits have seen feuding between radical and pro-Western leaders block any effective united stand. Foreign ministers will have their work cut out at their preparatory meeting on Thursday to ensure the same does not happen this year.
