Saudi Arabia today urged
Arab leaders attending a Beirut summit this week to take a sincere stance to stop what it described as savage Israeli aggression against Palestinians.
The summit, on Wednesday and Thursday, in Beirut is set to be dominated by a Saudi peace proposal that offers normalisation of Arab ties with Israel in exchange for full Israeli withdrawal from all Arab land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The savage aggression to which Israeli occupying forces are subjecting Palestinians require a sincere stance by all Arab countries to make effective resolutions," the cabinet said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The cabinet said the summit resolutions should seek to prevent the continuation of "Israeli practices...that have killed hundreds of innocent people".
Earlier today, Palestinian factions representing secular and religious groupings urged Arab leaders to reject the initiative, which has been welcomed by the United States and several Arab states.
About 1,500 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed since the start of the uprising in September 2000.