Arabs division increases Israeli massacres in Lebanon: says president

SANA’A, July 31 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that what is happening in Lebanon and Palestine “is because of the absence of Arabsolidarity”. In an interview with al-Jazeera satellite channel, president Saleh said”if there was a stronger Arab solidarity, Israel would not have committed such massacres before eyes of Arab countries.” Saleh said that the Arab reaction towards the miserable situation in Lebanon and Palestine was only condemnation. He pointed out that Yemen had clearly expressed it stand through its proposal for holding an emergency Arab summit to discuss this Israeli war against Lebanese resistance and to come out with unified Arab position that support resistance politically and materially. “Unfortunately, the summit was canceled because the number of Arab countries that accepted the Yemeni initiative have not been enough to hold the summit so we withdrew our call to avoid further disagreement among Arab countries,”said Saleh. He said that 14 Arab countries, out of 22, agreed on holding the summit. Saleh wondered about how the Arab countries could shoulder their responsibility as they could not “activate the joint defense agreement with brothers in Lebanon and Palestine.” Asked about reasons of objection to the Yemen-called emergency summit, president Saleh made it clear that the key reason was different viewpoints of Arab countries some of which said that the emergency meeting of the Arab foreign ministers was enough. He said those countries said that they “are not ready to enter a war led by Hezbollah that just arrested two Israeli soldiers.” “Israeli detains more than ten thousand Arab prisoners,” said Saleh. “This is not the first time that Hezbollah and Hamas arrest Israeli soldiers. The two arrested more than one Israeli. But, at that time there was Arab solidarity,” Saleh underlined. He said that the issue is not kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, it is Israel-made plot. “There is a plot of new Middle East, which is so dangerous, not only against Lebanese resistance or Syria or any Arab country, but in fact the plot aims at changing the region as a whole”. “That why we called for Arab summit to discuss ceasefire first, and then to negotiate e with Israel in accordance with decisions of the Beirutsummit, especially the initiative presented by King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz”,said Saleh. In the interview, president Saleh dealt with several issues associated with the developments at the regional and international level. AH/NS SABA