Arab League calls on Quartet to end Israeli dig
Source: Reuters
CAIRO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Arab League on Saturday condemned excavations by Israel near Islam's third holiest shrine, and called on the Quartet of Middle East mediators to make the Israelis stop. "(The Arab League) calls on the members of the Quartet to take up their responsibilities and pressure Israel, the occupying power, to make it stop this aggression immediately," the league said in a statement. The excavations around the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which Israel says aim to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex also sacred to Jews, have angered Muslims who fear the work can damage the foundations of the 1,400-year-old mosque. Israel says the holy places would not be harmed. The league described the Israeli dig as criminal, and said a violation of the mosque was a violation of every Muslim's creed. The league also called on the Arab bloc at the United Nations to call for an emergency session of the Security Council to put a stop to the dig. Egypt's top government cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, appealed for global action to protect the shrine. The Foreign Ministry told Israel's envoy in Cairo the dig could hurt efforts to revive the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The shrine has been a flashpoint of violence in the past. A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the hilltop area.
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