Berri calls for Egypt summit to address Israeli threats

BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri called Tuesday for an Arab League summit in Egypt for a unified response to Israeli threats as he stressed the need to boycott Israel and end all forms of normalization with Tel Aviv.

“A response to Israeli crimes against humanity cannot be faced with statements of condemnation but calls for a united Arab stance to re-establish the decision of the Arab League boycott office and abolish all measures for normalization of ties with Israel,” Berri said.

“The Arab stance should also restore to the Palestinian cause its political and historical roots as a cause of people and rights starting with an Arab founding summit at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo rather than anywhere else to achieve Arab consensus to face Israeli challenges,” Berri added.

Earlier this month, Berri called for boycotting the upcoming Arab League summit scheduled to be held in Libya next March.

He said Lebanon should not send a delegation to the Arab League summit in Libya since it could not host such a meeting as it fueled numerous crises “from Chad to Darfur.”

The Lebanese widely blame Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi for ordering the abduction of Iranian-born Lebanese Imam Moussa al-Sadr, together with his two companions, during an official trip to Libya in August 1978.

Tripoli has denied the allegations and claimed that Sadr, also the spiritual and political leader of the Movement of the Deprived (Amal) in Lebanon that is headed currently by Berri, had already left for Italy before his disappearance.

The speaker also stressed that “Israeli threats of war against Arab states as well as beyond Arab borders, [a reference to Iran] have reached their peak after attempts to rip off the Palestinian people from their land.”

Israel has lately been hurling threats of war against Lebanon, Syria and Iran with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem and Iranian President Ahmadinejad warning Israel that they would retaliate strongly if attacked.

Commenting on Hamas official Mohammad Mabhouh’s assassination, Berri said Israel proved that it represented “the peak of official terrorism.”

After the incident, the Dubai police released names and photos of an alleged 11-member hit squad accused of stalking and killing Mabhouh.

The police appealed for an international manhunt, saying the assailants forged European passports to enter the emirates.

Hamas has accused Israel’s Mossad secret service of masterminding the slaying and has vowed revenge.

“Israel proved in sound and picture that it represented without a doubt the peak of official terrorism after the execution of the assassination operation of Mabhouh in Dubai through forgery,” the speaker said.

Berri added that the operation had been followed by another decision by Israeli Premier Benyamin Netanyahu to annex Ibrahim Al-Khalil and Bilal Ben Rabah Mosques respectively in the cities Al-Khalil and Bethlehem to Israeli historic tourist sites.

“Israeli crimes are a continuation of a series of attempts targeted against the Palestinian people, their land, trees and history in parallel with the Israeli siege on Gaza and the rise of new settlements to suffocate Jerusalem as well as attempts to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque,” the speaker said.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=112079.