Arab League summit postponed
An extraordinary Arab summit, due be held on Wednesday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Shaikh, has been postponed after the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz.
“The summit will be postponed several days and consultations are ongoing to set a new date for the summit,” Arab League chief Amr Moussa told reporters soon after he landed in the Red Sea resort that was the scene of deadly bombings on 23 July.
Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak had called last week for the summit, which was expected to focus on the threat of terrorism, the Palestinian question ahead of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in mid-August and Iraq.
The Palestinians and 21 other Arab countries had said they would attend.
Sharm al-Shaikh was devastated by three bombing attacks that killed 67 people, including several foreigners. It was the second attack in the Sinai Peninsula in nine months.
A spate of suicide bombings farther north had killed 34 people, among them Israelis, on 7 October.