CAIRO, March 14 (NNN-KUNA) — Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa is holding a series of contacts aimed at “safeguarding the peace process and halting Israeli measures,” a league official said on Saturday.

These contacts are being held with various relevant regional and international powers and states, particularly the United States, following the Arab states’ support for the indirect talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, said Mohammad Sebeeh, the league assistant secretary general for Palestine affairs and the occupied territories, in a statement to journalists.

Moussa has recently lambasted Israel’s declaration of a plan to build 1,600 new settlements at crucial times while the US and other powers were exerting intensive efforts to breathe life into the long-stalled Middle East peace process.

Sebeeh added that the recent meeting of the Arab peace initiative committee specified several steps, on the basis of the resolutions of the Arab foreign ministers, on March 3, such as the call on the US to influence Israel halt the dangerous practices.

“The Arab side cannot be solely complacent with listening to denunciations and expression of dismay by the US Administration and the international community vis a vis Israel’s actions because the latter does not understand the meaning of shy condemnations but specific measures for reining its conducts,” the league official pointed out.

He indicated that the league was seeking to determine how Washington would respond to the Israeli practices.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Arab Bar Association Hamdi Khalifa called on Arab leaders, due to take part in the Arab summit scheduled in Libya in the end of this month, to take a firm and unified stance for aborting the Israeli bids to judaize Jerusalem and halt the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians.

He urged the Arabs to “abandon the circle of condemnations and shift a more robust quarter in the face of the Israeli attacks latest of which were those launched on Al-Ibrahimi and Bilal Bin Rabah mosques,” alluding to Israel’s declaration to include these ancient Muslim sanctities into the files of Jewish heritage. — NNN-KUNA

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