RI warns of ‘new tensions’

Jakarta, NU Online
Indonesia condemns the Israeli missile attacks on the Gaza Strip, accusing Israel of abusing the Annapolis agreement signed by the two disputing countries in November last year and warning that the air strikes will only trigger “new tensions” in the area.

“The Indonesian government is deeply upset by the deaths of about 150 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip caused by the Israeli missile attacks, said Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah in an official statement made available to The Jakarta Post Saturday.<>

“The Indonesian government condemns the attack and calls for Israel to end the use of violence in the Gaza Strip because this will prompt new tensions, while, on the other side, the attack is an abuse of the Annapolis agreement which had been negotiated,” Major world powers meanwhile called for an immediate end to the violence, reports said.

Amr Mussa, secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League, called for an emergency meeting on Sunday of foreign ministers of Arab countries “to discuss the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

He also asked Libya, as a member of the United National Security Council, to organize an emergency meeting of the council on the subject of the Israeli raids, Agence France-Presse reported.

An official in Tripoli said Libyan leader Moammar Kadhafi had contacted Arab leaders to seek a “firm and serious position after the butchery which took place today in Gaza.”

The European Union, the bloc’s current president France, Britain and Russia urged both sides to stop the fighting, and the United States said Israel “should avoid civilian casualties”.

In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Saturday slammed Israel’s air raids on the Gaza Strip.

“The latest Israeli massacre is a war crime and shows what little regard Israel has for international law and the fourth Geneva convention on the protection of civilians in time of war,” OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu stated.

Medics inside Gaza said most of the dead appeared to belong to the Islamist Hamas movement which has controlled the territory since it ousted forces loyal to secular Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007.

Ihsanoglu, head of the OIC, called on Palestinian factions to “begin an immediate national dialogue with the aim of restoring unity and ending divisions that grievously harm the Palestinian cause,” AFP reported.  

He said he had called a high-level OIC meeting to discuss Gaza and urged the internatonal community to take urgent action “to end Israeli violations and protect the Palestinian people.”

The OIC groups 1.3 billion Muslims from 57 countries.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Javier  Solana earlier Saturday said the EU was “calling for an immediate cease-fire and the maximum restraint.”  “Everything must be done to reinstate the truce” declared by the Palestinian Hamas movement controlling Gaza, which expired on Dec. 19.

“The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza,” U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Waco, as U.S. President George W. Bush saw out 2008 on his Texas ranch.

“Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people,” Johndroe said in a brief statement.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stated that “Egypt condemns the Israeli military aggression on the Gaza Strip and blames Israel, as an occupying force, for the victims and the wounded.”
He ordered the Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza to be opened for wounded Palestinians to be evacuated “so they can receive the necessary treatment in Egyptian hospitals.”

In Amman the royal palace said King Abdullah of Jordan had been in touch with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and with Mubarak to “launch an Arab and international initiative aimed at ending the Israeli aggression”, AFP said. (dar)