Yemen's parliament speaker Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar on Wednesday joined Arab calls for Qatar to close down Israel's trade office in Doha before it hosts the Islamic summit on November 12-14.
"It is strange that Qatar which adopts good positions and will host the summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference has not yet closed the Jewish office, the way Oman, Tunisia and Morocco have done," he told the Saudi paper Al-Riyadh.
Sheikh Ahmar, who is also leader of the opposition Al-Islah party, urged the summit "to adopt firm, solid and united resolutions to restore the force and dignity of Islam, the Muslims and the Arabs."
Several figures from around the Arab world, notably Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah who heads Lebanon's Muslim fundamentalist group Hezbollah, have called for the Israeli office in Doha to be shut down.
Oman, the only other Gulf monarchy to have links with Israel, closed its trade office in Tel Aviv and an Israeli commercial mission in Muscat on October 12, two weeks after the outbreak of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian clashes.
Qatar, which in 1997 hosted a Middle East economic conference that was boycotted by most Arab countries because of Israel's participation, set up commercial ties with the Jewish state in 1996.
But relations were frozen almost immediately, following the rise to power of right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli premier -- RIYADH (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
