Assistant Foreign Minister Dr. Nizar Obaid Madani left Cairo today after heading the Saudi delegation to the extraordinary meeting of the Arab League's follow-up committee on Middle East affairs. The meeting, attended by representatives from Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Syria and Yemen as well as Saudi Arabia, was briefed on developments by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. At a press conference, Dr. Madani reiterated the Kingdom's inalienable stance on the Palestinian cause, and stressed the need to extend support to the Palestinian people until they regain their legitimate rights and establish their independent state with Al-Quds as its capital.

Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa declared that Israel's recent air strikes demand international intervention to stop the systematic killing of Palestinians with the aim of exterminating them. Yesterday's attacks on the West Bank and Gaza, he said, constituted a very dangerous escalation in the nearly eight months of renewed fighting. Secretary-General Moussa, who took over as head of the League of Arab States earlier this week after ten years as the Foreign Minister of Egypt, reiterated Arab calls for an international peacekeeping force in the Palestinian territories, a proposal that both Israel and the United States have rejected.
Meanwhile, the Muslim World League (MWL) is urging the United Nations to act on war crimes perpetrated by Israel in occupied Palestine specifically on children. MWL Secretary-General Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki sent a cable to the head of UNICEF pointing out that within six months, over 120 Palestinian children had been killed.

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