Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:04:35 GMT
 Iran's President Ahmadinejad will attend Doha meeting on Gaza. |
The meeting convened in Doha on Friday on Qatar's initiative despite it did not reach the quorum of two third of the 22-member Arab League.
It is also attended by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, who arrived in the Qatari capital Doha on Friday in response to a personal invitation from Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Twelve or 13 leaders of the Arab countries, such as Lebanon, Syria, Libya, and Sudan, are present at the meeting.
Ahmadinejad on Thursday called for establishing a war crimes tribunal to try Israeli officials for their crimes in Gaza.
"I promise the people of the world that very soon a war crimes tribunal will be set up to bring Israeli officials and their supporters in the US and the West to justice," he said.
Doha has proposed to host an emergency summit of Arab League countries on the Gaza crisis immediately after Israel launched Gaza war on December 27.
However, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two political heavyweights in the region, along with Tunisia, have rejected holding the Doha summit, suggesting instead that Arab leaders hold talks in Kuwait on Sunday on the sidelines of a planned Arab economic summit.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia claim the summit could spoil Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Qatar's ruler said the purpose of the meeting is not to sabotage truce efforts.
Meanwhile, Saudi King Abdullah on Wednesday called for its own emergency meeting of Persian Gulf Countries in Riyadh to discuss the Israeli aggression on the Palestinians in Gaza and the current circumstances in the Arab world.
According to Gaza medics, since Israel unleashed Operation Cast Lead on December 27, at least 1,133 Palestinians have been killed and another 5,200 wounded.
Some 600 of the victims have been civilians, including 355 children, they say.
Tel Aviv says its objective is to put an end to rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Hamas, the democratically-elected ruler of the coastal sliver, demands a cessation of an 18-month Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip before its fighters suspend the rocket attacks.
Despite heavy Israeli bombardments and a later massive ground invasion, Palestinian groups have managed to fire more rockets into Israeli towns inspiring widespread fear among Israelis.
Since the start of the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip Palestinian groups have fired home-made rockets deeper into Israel, hitting two Israeli military bases near Tel Aviv for the first time ever, according to Hamas affiliated Al-Aqsa television.
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