“I came at the request of (Palestinian President) Mahmoud Abbas in order to start preparing for a draft resolution that will be presented to the Security Council as soon as possible,” Malki told reporters.
He expressed hope that the text, which was to be discussed here yesterday by Arab foreign ministers, could be adopted today at a meeting of the 15-member council, which Abbas plans to attend.
Malki said the proposed resolution would call for “the ending of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, a permanent and immediate ceasefire, lifting the siege, opening the crossings between Gaza and Israel and also between Gaza and Egypt.”
The draft would also urge “allowing humanitarian aid and medication to enter Gaza, having international observers to be dispersed along the different crossings and an international force that will really provide protection for the Palestinian people,” he added.
Malki said he and fellow Arab foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria plus Arab League chief Amr Moussa planned to discuss the issue with UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday afternoon.
nWorld leaders expressed mounting concern about the impact on civilians of the fighting in the Gaza Strip yesterday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during a telephone conversation with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Kremlin said.
“Dmitry Medvedev and Mahmoud Abbas discussed the escalation of the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has led to numerous victims among the civilian population and a severe humanitarian situation,” it said in a statement.
The foreign minister of the Czech Republic, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, repeated the bloc’s call for an immediate halt to Israel’s deadly offensive on Hamas in Gaza.
“We are not sharing the view that a ceasefire is only possible if all… aims of the Israeli actions are achieved,” Karel Schwarzenberg told reporters in Egypt.
“We do think that the ceasefire should be as early as possible.”
Georgia’s foreign ministry expressed concern over the plight of civilians but blamed the Islamist movement Hamas for the violence.
A statement expressed “concern over the escalation of tensions in the Gaza Strip and deteriorating humanitarian situation, which has been triggered by rocket attacks launched by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians.”
Chinese President Hu Jintao, in a telephone call with US President George W Bush, described events in Gaza as a “humanitarian crisis”.