Iran said Monday's peace summit in Egypt is aimed at "influencing" next week's Arab summit in Cairo and vowed it would have no effect on Muslim support for the Palestinian cause.
The summit is "aimed at influencing the next Arab summit and blocking Arab heads of state from taking a firm position of support for the Palestinians," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said, cited in the Aftab-e Yazd paper.
He added: "The Palestinian people, their resistance and the Islamic intifada (uprising) must show greater vigilance."
Meanwhile the state IRNA news agency quoted him as saying that Israel "is itself the symbol of government-run terrorism" and that "the Zionist regime has drowned in the crisis it created itself."
Asefi said Sunday: "Holding such gatherings while the Zionists continue their merciless policy is not only not helping the Palestinians, but is also aimed at sidetracking the Intifada."
Iran does not recognize the state of Israel and is opposed to the peace process.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak went Monday to the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for a summit aimed at putting an end to the recent explosion of Middle East violence.
US President Bill Clinton, Jordan's King Abdullah II, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana are also attending the meeting, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday that Russia had not been invited, while insisting that Moscow remains a "fully-fledged participant" in the Middle East peace process.
Arab leaders are scheduled to gather in Cairo on October 21 for a summit, their first in four years, to discuss the Middle East crisis, which has claimed more than 100 lives since the end of September, all but seven of them Arabs, mainly in clashes between Israelis and Palestinians -- TEHRAN (AFP)
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