The former Lebanese Prime Minister Salim Hoss has appealed to Qatar to scrap its plans to hold a World Trade Organization (WTO) conference in November if Israel takes part, a Qatari paper reported Saturday, July 28.
"We call on Qatar, this brother country, to drop plans to host the WTO conference if Israel is going to take part," Hoss wrote in an article published by the Al-Watan daily.
In the article, the former prime minister says "the gain that Qatar could derive from holding this conference is nothing compared to the damage that would be done to the Arab cause by a representative from Israel entering an Arab country while the Jewish state is in the process of carrying out butchery in Palestine."
On Tuesday, the Lebanese Hizbullah condemned Qatar's "irresponsible" behavior, accusing it of violating Arab resolutions by accepting the presence of an Israeli delegation at the next conference in Doha.
Qatar announced earlier this month that Israel, which is widely criticized in the Arab world for its repression of the intifada, would be attending the ministerial conference of the WTO, planned for November in Doha. ― (AFP, Doha)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
