The decisions of the Arab summit in Cairo on Sunday sent a message of anger to Israel over its "atrocities" against the Palestinians, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mussa said.
"All the Arabs, from the left, right or center, are angry. This is the message" from the summit, Mussa said, adding: "We mean business."
"We should not accept the current situation," he said, accusing Israel of carrying out "atrocities" in the past three weeks of Israeli-Palestinian clashes that have cost around 130 lives, mostly Palestinian.
Mussa, at a joint news conference with Arab League chief Esmat Abdel Meguid, avoided questions on Egyptian-Israeli ties and declined to explain the summit's stand on relations between Arab countries and Israel.
The text of the final statement was clear on the issue, he insisted.
The statement said, "In light of the reversal of the peace process, the Arab leaders stress their commitment to firmly challenge Israeli attempts to infiltrate the Arab world in any form, and from now on to stop opening relations with Israel."
Egypt was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with the Jewish state in 1979, followed by Jordan in 1994. Several other Arab countries have set up limited links since the 1994 launch of Palestinian autonomy.
Mussa also stressed that Arab leaders had in their resolutions condemned the "destruction of the peace process and the atrocities committed against the Palestinians."
"I do not think that Israel is pleased," he said, referring to reactions from the Jewish state. "Pleased or not pleased, it is their business" -- CAIRO (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
