The opening session of the extraordinary meeting of the Interim Arab Parliament was held yesterday to discuss Israel's attack on Gaza. The MPs slammed Egypt for its stance on the Rafah border crossing and called on Cairo, implicitly and explicitly, to open the Rafah border crossing. As a result, Dr. Mostafa el-Fiqi, president of the Arab Affairs Committee at the People's Assembly [Egypt's lower chamber of Parliament] left the hall to protest against what he described as insinuations. He was then caught up with by Parliament Speaker Jasim al-Saqr and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa also came in to ease the disputes. When al-Fiqi returned to the hall, he delivered a speech in which he criticized those who alluded that some Arab regimes were actually looking positively at the current events in the Gaza Strip. "Israel can not be an ally of any Arab or Islamic state. As for Egypt, it has always warned against inter-Palestinian divisions and has always been in touch with and slammed Hamas" he said. He also added that Egypt "does not make any difference" between Fatah and Hamas, although he admitted Cairo's views are closer to those of Fatah than Hamas's. The resistance is not an absolute operation, he added. "If Egypt is offended and accused of treachery again, it will get out of the Arab equation" he said. He also called for more patience and reasonability, pointing out that in 2008 Egypt opened the border crossings in front of the Palestinians and many people leaked into Egypt.
