The Lebanese fundamentalist movement Hizbullah on Tuesday, July 24, said Qatar's decision to accept the presence of an Israeli delegation at the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in Doha was "irresponsible."
"It is strange that an Arab state should allow a delegation from the Israeli enemy to enter its territory ... when children and adult martyrs fall in the occupied land of Palestine", the Shiite militia said in a statement.
"This behavior is all the more reprehensible and irresponsible in that it is a violation of the Arab summit resolutions which call for a total break in relations with the Israeli entity", Hizbullah added.
On June 13, Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani, head of the Qatari committee helping to organize the November WTO conference, confirmed that Israeli would be taking part in the meeting.
Last November the Qatar closed down an Israeli trade office in its capital of Doha, on the eve of an Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit there and amid criticism from other Arab and Islamic countries. ― (AFP, Beirut)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
