Arab League chief tells all states to call for halt to settlements
Amr Moussa urges Arab leaders not to meet with Netanyahu unless Israel freezes West Bank construction, home demolitions in Arab villages
JORDAN - Amr Moussa, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, urged leaders of Arab states who plan to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call for a cessation of Israeli settlement building.
"They must not meet with him if building in the settlements continues and if demolitions of (homes) in Arab villages continue. This will change the demographic balance and undermine our cause," he said Sunday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East.
Since taking office a month-and-a-half ago, Netanyahu has met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah II, but has yet to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Moussa continued to say that a halt to Israel's settlement construction "must be a precondition" to a meeting between Netanyahu and any Arab leader.
"If they meet with him, they will be publicly rejecting the two-state solution, and therefore the freezing of all settlement building must be a prerequisite," he said, "otherwise we Arabs will be undermining our own cause."
President Shimon Peres is expected to meet Abdullah later in the day to discuss the peace process as well as ways to boost the economic cooperation between Israel and Jordan.
