January 07, 2009	Wednesday	Muharram 09, 1430

RIYADH, Jan 6: A member of the Saudi royal family blasted the US government on Tuesday for its “reckless” position towards Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip.

“The Bush administration has left you (with) a disgusting legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and bloodshed of innocents in Gaza,” Prince Turki al-Faisal said in a message directed at President-elect Barack Obama.

“Enough is enough, today we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza,” Faisal, a former ambassador to the United States, said at a forum on relations between the Gulf region and the US.Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal slammed Israeli politicians for “shedding Palestinian blood in what has become a tactic for Israeli parties to settle their election battles.” In an address read out at the forum by his deputy, the minister said peace in the region will not be achieved unless Israel pulls out of the Palestinian territories it occupies.

He called on Obama to live up to his campaign message of “change”, urging cooperation with the Arab world.

“Together we can reach a peaceful and permanent solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict,” he said.

According to Palestinian medics at least 635 Palestinians have died and more than 2,700 have been wounded since the Israel military invasion of the Gaza Strip on December 27.—AFP