ccun.org, June 11, 2009

Editor's Note:

Some NATO countries, which are militant in their service to the Israeli occupation government, hold regular meetings with the declared goal of tightening the Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza Strip. These countries have never attempted to end the Israeli brutal siege of 1.5 million people. Thus, doing, they are truly active participants in the inhumane siege of Gaza Strip using the pretext of preventing weapon-smuggling, while in fact they are preventing the entry of basic commodities, particularly medicine and medical equipment.

Shame!

Canada hosts Gaza anti-smuggling summit

Date: 11 / 06 / 2009  Time:  11:37
[Ma'anImages]
Bethlehem – Ma’an –

Canada is hosting a three-day expert-level meeting on combating arms smuggling to the Gaza Strip, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon announced on Wednesday.

The meeting began in Ottowa on Wednesday and will continue until Friday. The meeting will address the Gaza Counter-Arms Smuggling Initiative (GCASI), which was established at another experts meeting in London in March.

The GCASI members are Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States.

"Canada's participation in this initiative is a clear sign of our commitment to international efforts to bring about a durable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, one consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1860," said Cannon in a statement.

"By addressing arms smuggling and the continued threat of terrorism through this initiative,” he said, “Canada continues to contribute to a sustainable peace in the region, along with its international partners."

This meeting will discuss the implementation of a “plan of action” adopted at the outset of the initiative on 13 March in London.

Since the end of Israel’s war on Gaza in January, Hamas, the ruling party in Gaza, has vowed to continue importing weapons into the Gaza Strip, though its capacity to do so is not known. The only reliable method of moving goods into the Gaza Strip is through a network of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. Egypt’s pro-American regime is staunchly opposed to any smuggling into Gaza.