Saudi prince condemns Israeli offensive as 'savage act'

On the eve of today's meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Malaysia, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has condemned Israel's offensive against the Palestinians as a "savage act far from any human logic".

He said that the Israeli Prime Minister "has no brain, no humanity", but that Mr Ariel Sharon would not succeed in derailing the peace plan adopted by last week's Arab summit. The Arab League Secretary General, Mr Amr Musa, speaking after Saturday's crisis meeting at the league's headquarters in Cairo, asserted: "If this is the Israeli response to our \ initiative, then it is for the world to know who is on the side of peace and who is on the side of aggression."

Mr Musa took issue with the US, which blamed the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, for the crisis by failing curb militants."It's not a question of terror. It's foreign military occupation that breeds all those violent reactions," he observed.

He said the Arabs should convene an emergency summit and resume the boycott of Israel, suspended in 1993 after it signed the Oslo accord with the Palestinians.

Egypt's President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, called on the international community to intervene. His Foreign Minister, Mr Ahmad Maher, summoned the Israeli ambassador, Mr Gideon Ben Ami, to complain that Israel had ignored Cairo's warnings. Thousands of students demonstrated in the country's major cities, demanding that relations. be broken off.

Jordan's Foreign Minister, Mr Marwan Muasher, told the Israeli ambassador, Mr David Dadon, that Jordan might further downgrade relations with Israel "if the Israeli actions against the Palestinian people and leadership do not stop immediately". Both Egypt and Jordan recalled their ambassadors from Tel Aviv after the start of the Palestinian uprising in October 2000.

In a separate meeting with the ambassadors of the five permanent UN Security Council members, Mr Muasher delivered a similar message and demanded the deployment of an international intervention force under UN command. Sheikh Hamad Ben Jassam al-Thani, the Foreign Minister of Qatar, which has trade relations with Israel, phoned Mr Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister, to say that Israel's onslaught "confirmed the bankruptcy of the policy of Sharon".

Morocco's King Muhammad VI rang him and threatened un- specified sanctions. The Libyan leader, Col Muammar Gadafy, said Arab states should dispatch their own protection force to stage a peaceful sit-in round Palestinian Authority buildings under attack by Israeli tanks. Newspapers everywhere in the region adopted a line similar to that taken by the Syrian official daily, Tishrin, which saw the offensive as Israel's definitive "response to the peace initiative". Commentators castigated the US for giving Israel a "green light" for the offensive.

AFP adds - In unusually strident criticism of Israel, Egyptian state television yesterday claimed that the Jewish state had opted for a Nazi-style "final solution" against the Palestinians after Israeli forces launched a massive offensive into Palestinian territories.

Using an amalgamation of the Star of David and a Nazi swastika as a backdrop for its coverage,Egypt's Channel One attacked Israeli "Zionazism" and argued that, "to get rid of the Palestinians,Israel has opted for the final solution used by Hitlerite Germany to exterminate the Jews".