Arab summit to reflect stern condemnation of Gaza war – spokesman

A forthcoming Arab Leauge summit in the Bahraini capital Manama aims to express the region's firm rejection of Israel's war against the Gaza Strip, the spokesman for the bloc's chief said on Sunday ahead of the gathering. Dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict entails getting to the "root cause" of the matter, Jamal Rashdi told the press on the sidelines of a preparatory meeting involving senior officials and permanent delegates, which delved into the agenda for the summit. In a gathering of such magnitude, he expected the Arab Summit to give impetus to diplomatic efforts aiming to put in place a definitive ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, which would subsequently pave the way for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, he underlined, citing the "extraordinary and unprecedented" circumstances in which the summit is taking place. On the primary objective for the talks, he said the summit should yield a diplomatic "work plan" that would push for a stringent ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave, allowing for the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians there. While the "Palestinian cause" will expectedly take precedence over the rest of the matters due to be addressed, the agenda remains stacked with pressing issues including acute food security in Sudan, which is of no less importance, he added. Leaders from across the wider Arab region are set to assemble in Bahrain's capital Manama on May 16 in a bid to ratchet up cooperation and coordination on a range of crucial issues, chief among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Source: Kuwait News Agency