The ninth summit of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), dominated by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will resume its session in Doha Monday.
At a special session devoted to the "serious conditions" in the Palestinian territories, where more than 200 people have been killed in six weeks of clashes, leaders called for an immediate break of relations with Israel, while others called for jihad to liberate the occupied Palestinian lands.
Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and Moroccan King Mohamed VI, both of whose countries have rocky ties with Qatar, were among the notable absentees.
Jordan's King Abdullah II and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat called jointly Sunday for international observers to be sent into the Palestinian territories during a meeting on the sidelines of the Islamic summit.
They said "the murderous incidents in the Palestinian territories make international observers necessary to assure international protection for the Palestinians," the official Jordanian news agency Petra said.
Abdullah condemned "the acts of murder and violence committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian civilians along with the continued blockade imposed on Palestinian cities and villages."
The king also called on Israel "to work toward stopping its policy of escalation that is compromising the region's security and stability."
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, called for a cut in diplomatic relations with any country that transfers its embassy in Israel to the disputed holy city of Jerusalem.
"It is our duty to underline the need to break diplomatic relations with any country which transfers its embassy to Jerusalem," he said.
For his part, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami called for the same action.
"The countries which have not broken their relations with the Zionist entity must move urgently to break them ... in response to Islamic public opinion," he said.
Khatami called for the OIC to set up "mechanisms to help the Intifada (uprising) of the Palestinian people that is a legitimate resistance."
Iraq's second-in-command Ezzat Ibrahim also joined the Saudi and Iranian proposals.
"The minimum expected of us ... is to put a halt to any relations with the Zionist enemy," said Ibrahim, delivering a message from President Saddam Hussein who has not traveled abroad since the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.
He criticized the resolutions of the Arab summit held last month in Cairo as "insufficient" and renewed Iraq's call for jihad, or holy war, against Israel "to liberate Palestine."
The Cairo Arab summit stopped short of calling for a boycott of Israel, while Islamic states at the three-day summit in Doha have been "invited" to cut relations with the Jewish state, in a draft resolution drawn up by their foreign ministers.
Egypt, meanwhile, proposed that members of the organization contribute one billion dollars to double the Arab solidarity funds for the Palestinians.
Prime Minister Atef Obeid, in the absence of President Mubarak, made the proposal during the special session on the Palestinian uprising against Israel.
One billion dollars in solidarity funds decided at the Arab summit in Cairo last month should be doubled with the contributions of the 56-member OIC, which includes African and Asian states as well as former Soviet republics, Obeid said.
The Arab summit set aside 200 million dollars for the families of victims of clashes with Israeli forces, while the remaining 800 million dollars is to go toward preservation of the Arab character of Jerusalem and development projects.
Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has pledged 250 million dollars.
A draft resolution to be submitted to leaders of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims "invites" Islamic countries, notably in Africa, to break with Israel for its alleged war crimes.
The draft drawn up by foreign ministers calls for an "international tribunal to judge Israeli war criminals" and commits OIC states to recognize an independent Palestinian state once declared.
Held under tight security at a seafront hotel, the summit is also to debate the lingering civil war in Afghanistan, the Kashmir conflict, Kosovo and Chechnya - (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
