Arab foreign ministers convened an emergency meeting Wednesday afternoon at the headquarters of the Cairo-based Arab League (AL) on the latest development of the Middle East peace process.
The issues of inter-Palestinian unity, the peace talks with Israel and the current situation in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip are high on the agenda of the meeting.
In the opening session of the meeting, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faysal voiced his hope that the Arabs would hammer out a joint strategy on healing the inter-Palestinian rift.
Arab countries should make use of the chance they have now as the U.S. president-elect Barack Obama voiced support for a two-state solution for the Palestinian issue, said al-Faysal.
The Saudi foreign minister said he hopes the Arab ministers would come out with a strategy based on Palestinian unity.
During the following closed session, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit was expected to explain Egypt's vision of the Palestinian situation since 2006, particularly the Egyptian efforts on maintaining a truce between Israel and Palestinian militant groups and hosting an inter-Palestinian unity dialogue.
On Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said the emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers is an important opportunity to put the Palestinian issue back onto the right track.
During the past three weeks, scores of rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel and over a dozen Palestinian militants have been killed, raising fear that the Egyptian-brokered truce, generally honored by both sides before the recent flare-up, might collapse before its first phase of six months expires.
As for the Palestinian unity, Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement boycotted the Egyptian-proposed dialogue which was due to start in early November, citing the continuation of a Fatah-led clampdown against its members in the West Bank.
Source:Xinhua
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