The Arab Economic Summit, scheduled to begin tomorrow in Sharm el-Sheikh, is expected to endorse an Egyptian proposal to formally reject "foreign intervention" in Arab affairs, according to an Arab League source.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Friday said that Cairo was seeking Arab support in order to counter Western calls for the "protection" of Christian minorities in Iraq and Egypt.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said that Egypt would propose that the upcoming summit discuss a resolution condemning “western interference in domestic Arab affairs under the pretext of protecting Christians.”
“Egypt categorically rejects these claims,” Zaki said, adding that such calls would only serve to aggravate sectarian tensions in the Middle East.
Poland's Foreign Ministry, for its part, stated that four European governments had asked EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to take up the issue of recent attacks on Christians in the region. Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told the Associated Press on Friday that the foreign ministers of Poland, Italy, France and Hungary had sent a joint letter to Ashton suggesting that the EU "look into" the recent "wave of attacks" on Christians in the Middle East.
Bosacki refused to elaborate further.
The New Year's Eve bombing of a church in Alexandria killed 23 Coptic Christians and left scores injured. An attack late last year on a Catholic church in Baghdad left 68 worshipers dead.
Translated from the Arabic Edition.
