Arab ministers to discuss Jerusalem violations

Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo early next month to discuss Israeli violations at Al Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.

Israeli settlers led by their Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel raided the mosque where confrontations took place, leading to tens of injuries among the guards and worshippers as well as suffocation from tear gas.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that foreign ministers from 15 Arab states will meet on August 5 to discuss the "dangerous development" in Jerusalem.

They will discuss "Israeli escalations at Al Aqsa Mosque, continuing settlements, extra-judicial arrests and assassinations and forced displacements" of Palestinians, he said after meeting the league's chief Nabil Al Arabi at its Cairo headquarters.

The 15 ministers represent Arab countries involved in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative that calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories in exchange for full normalisation of ties with the Arab world.

Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have been comatose since a failed US diplomatic effort in April last year, and a war in the Gaza Strip last summer killed about 2,200 Palestinians.

The meeting will also discuss Palestinian reconciliation efforts and a new Arab bid to end the Israeli occupation through the United Nations, Erekat said.