Egypt has refused to participate in the emergency Arab summit proposed by Qatar to discuss the situation in Gaza. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Egypt told the Arab League that the Arab leaders who will be in Kuwait on Sunday can consult among themselves on the Gaza Strip without needing to go to Doha the next day. An official source told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the President will not go to a summit unless he was informed of its agenda first and unless there was an Arab consensus over it, which does not apply to the Doha summit.
The source admitted that the attack on Egypt by Al-Jazeera channel and the political positions of the Qatari leaders were behind Egypt refusing to attend. Meanwhile, President Mubarak held talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz in Riyadh on the Egyptian initiative that Hamas is still reluctant to accept, and on the outcome of the talks of the foreign ministers of the two countries with the Security Council.
Also Ambassador Hussein Haridi relayed to Ambassador Hussein Rajbi, the Iranian charge d'affaires in Cairo, Egypt's indignation at the remarks of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on January 10 on Egypt's role in the Israeli aggression on Gaza. He told him that Egypt works to help the Palestinian people and does not work against Hamas.
