Arab Foreign Ministers' Meeting "Dominated by Differences"; Hizbullah- Egypt War of Words
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=192891 (Arabic)
http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2.aspx?ArticleID=192627 (Arabic)

This week witnessed the convening of the meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo to discuss the ongoing events in Gaza. During the meeting, the Egyptian secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, emphasized the existence of inter-Arab, and inter-Palestinian differences, the results of which are the events in Gaza, he said. According to Moussa, it is these differences that Israel has learned to exploit, and it now acts with little regard for Arab states. At the conference, Egypt presented a paper calling for the cessation of Israeli aggression, and calling for the recognition of the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas by Hamas. Meanwhile, the meeting witnessed a conspicuous divide between the Egyptian delegation and the Syrian delegation, each of which tried to garner support for its positions among the participants, the latter arguing for the need to convene an Arab summit. Meanwhile, the war of words between Hizbullah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah and Egyptian foreign minister Abul Gheit escalated this week. In response to Nasrallah's harsh criticisms of Egypt on Gaza last week, specifically his call to millions of Egyptians to take to the street in protest, and for the Egyptian military to concede to the calls of the people to open the border "by force," Egyptian foreign minister Abul Gheit said--without specifically naming Nasrallah-that this amounts to a "declaration of war against the Egyptian people," and that the Egyptian military is "honorable" and prepared to defend the homeland against the "likes of you." Nasrallah, who said that Egypt is the "cornerstone" of what is happening in Gaza, has continued to call for an intifada of the Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic worlds, and for the convening of an Arab summit, adding that there are those who "are working to block it."