EGYPT: Amr Moussa says failure of planned US-sponsored Middle East peace conference will lead to greater violence in region

At an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday (September 5), the head of the League, Amr Moussa, said the failure of a planned U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference would lead to greater violence in the region. The bi-annual foreign ministers meeting was set to discuss a host of regional crises, from the crisis in Gaza to ongoing violence and sectarian strife in Lebanon and the war in Iraq. The assembled ministers were also set to discuss the results of a act-finding commission on Hamas' takeover of Gaza in which it displaced the security apparatus and administration of the Fatah party. The guest of honour at Wednesday's summit was the President of the Comoros Islands, Ahmed Abdullah Sambi, who took office in May in the first-ever peaceful exchange of power in that country's history. League Secretary-General Moussa said the Gaza fact-finding mission would allow the Arabs to arrive at a unified position in advance of a US-sponsored peace conference that is slated for November. But Moussa cautioned that if the planned peace conference did not address substantive issues, it could only worsen the situation in Israel-Palestine and the broader region. "And I would like to suggest quite frankly that a meeting that would be held as a political demonstration with no real content would not only be useless, but very harmful to Arab interests and the regional situation and the efforts to realize stability and support to the movement towards peace. When political exercises are an alternative to real movements they constitute a reinforcement of a status quo that inflames extremism and violence," he said. Wednesday's meeting comes amidst intensified regional efforts to build momentum for progress in the talks. The so-called International Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair met with Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday (September 4), as did Jordan's King Abdullah. Officials said on Wednesday that Blair, who is in Jerusalem, is developing a plan that would spell out "practical" steps that Israeli, Palestinian and business leaders would gradually take to try to boost peace prospects. The assembled ministers are set to hold a press conference later tonight at which they will announce the findings of the fact-finding mission.

ITN Source | September 6, 2007

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