Haniya asks Arab leaders to implement previous summit resolutions on Gaza siege

[30/03/2009 - 07:30 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Palestinian premier Ismail Haniya has asked the Arab rulers to implement former summit resolutions concerning the siege on Gaza and to demand the trial of Israeli war criminals.

Haniya in a televised address to the Arab summit on Sunday night asked the Arab countries that still maintain relations with Israel to sever those ties.

"Waiting is no longer acceptable and we ask for implementation of what previous summits had approved," he underlined, adding, "The siege has claimed the lives of hundreds of patients and paralyzed life in the Gaza Strip".

Shifting to the internal Palestinian dialog, he opined that there was still a chance to solve pending questions away from foreign intervention.

"We agree to a unity government that would re-build institutions, prepare for the elections, break the siege and stabilize internal conciliation," Haniya elaborated.

The premier asked the summiteers to pay more attention to the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails and to exert greater efforts to ensure their release.

He finally asked the Arab heads of state to protect Jerusalem from judaization and incessant attempts to forcibly evacuate its indigenous inhabitants and to activate the issue of Palestinian refugees at international platforms.

Mansi calls for making siege and rebuilding issues high on Doha summit's agenda

[ 29/03/2009 - 04:58 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

Dr. Yousuf Al-Mansi, the PA minister of public works and housing, on Sunday called on the Arab leaders participating in the Doha summit to put the issues of breaking the siege and reconstructing Gaza at the top of their agenda.

In a press release received by the PIC, Dr. Mansi expressed hope that this summit could achieve something that could confront the Zionist schemes lurking for the Arab Nation in general and the Palestinian people in particular.

The minister underlined that the Arab Nation expects a lot from the Arab leaders in light of the critical circumstances and challenges that beset the Arab world.

He urged the Arab summit to be held Monday to take bold decisions to force the Israeli occupation to lift the siege on Gaza in order to ease the suffering of the Palestinian citizens especially those whose homes and property were destroyed.

Mansi also appealed to the Arab leaders to pay attention to the Zionist schemes of settlement expansion and judaization of occupied Jerusalem and take serious positions towards such schemes aimed to impose a fait accompli in the holy city and the West Bank.

In the same context, the international Palestinian campaign to lift the siege on Sunday said that it looks forward to Arab decisions in the Doha summit promoting the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and breaking the siege on Gaza citizens who are exposed to the ugliest crimes especially the blockade.   The international campaign warned, in a statement received by the PIC, of the continuing deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, which kept escalating over the past years and after the last Israeli war that caused devastation all over the enclave.

For its part, the Hamas change and reform parliamentary bloc urged the Arab leaders scheduled to meet in the Doha summit to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their just resistance, and take practical steps for breaking the siege and enforcing the resolution taken previously by the Arab foreign ministers in this regard.

Hamas bloc also called on them to seriously consider the issues of refugees' right to return and prisoners in Israeli jails.

The bloc stressed the need for taking a serious Arab position towards the Zionist schemes of judaization in Jerusalem and defending its people against Israeli plots to displace them from their homes and lands.