Arab leaders unable to agree on Gaza

KUWAIT. January 21. KAZINFORM The deeply divided Arab League failed on Tuesday to come up with a plan to reconstruct the devastated Gaza Strip and could not agree on whether to back Egyptian peace efforts to end the crisis.

The violence in Gaza has split Arab countries into two camps -- one supporting Hamas' hard-liners who rule the coastal territory, and the other -- mainly Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- hoping to lure the Palestinian movement toward more moderation. The political division could affect the stability of the fragile cease-fire between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, which was in its third day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on Israel and Hamas to show restraint and honor their recent cease-fire. Ban issued the plea during a visit to the war-ravaged Gaza Strip on Tuesday. During the tour, he visited UN facilities that were damaged during Israel?s three-week offensive against Gazans. The operation caused several billion dollars worth of damage and killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians. Ban said he is heartbroken that it took so long to reach a cease-fire. He also said the truce remains fragile and urged the sides to show ?maximum restraint.? After ending the Gaza tour, Ban headed to Israel to visit a southern town that has been the repeated target of Palestinian rocket attacks. Hundreds of millions of dollars in humanitarian aid will be needed immediately to help Gaza?s 1.4 million people and billions of dollars will be required to rebuild its shattered buildings and infrastructure, the UN humanitarian chief has said. John Holmes said some neighborhoods have been almost totally destroyed and many homes have been reduced to rubble. Sewage is flowing in some streets, there are huge medical and food needs, and unexploded ordnance is posing a big problem, he said. While 100,000 people had their running water restored on Sunday, 400,000 still have no water, electricity is available for less than half the day, and 100,000 people are displaced from their homes, Holmes said. Despite urgings from both sides to end the rift, the Arab leaders could not come up with a unified statement about how to end the crisis in Gaza at the end of a two-day summit in Kuwait. Instead, the final statement only focused on criticism of Israel and vague pledges to help the Palestinians in Gaza. ?The leaders stressed their determination to offer all kinds of aid to the Palestinian people and the reconstruction of Gaza,? said the statement, read by Arab League chief Amr Moussa. So far, only Saudi Arabia has pledged $1 billion for rebuilding efforts, though it was unclear how and to whom the money would be distributed. Earlier on Tuesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, without naming specific countries, said leaders were unable to reach a consensus. ?Unfortunately, we didn?t reach a final result because of time limits and because some are entrenched in their positions,? Zebari told state-owned Kuwait Television. The failure to agree came a day after Saudi King Abdullah urged Arab leaders to end their differences and warned Israel that an Arab peace initiative proposed by kingdom would not remain on the table forever. The king, who along with Egypt have been pressuring Hamas to be more moderate, even invited his Arab rivals -- the leaders of Syria and Qatar -- to lunch at his Kuwait residence. Following the meal, Qatar?s prime minister expressed optimism that both camps could work together, and local media praised the gathering as a historic ?Arab reconciliation,? Kazinform refers to Today's Zaman.