MARRAKESH (Morocco), Jan 25: The Al Quds Committee on Friday appealed to the United Nations to immediately deploy an international force to the Middle East to “protect the Palestinian people”.

The committee, meeting in Marrakesh, also called for international observers to monitor the implementation of the Mitchell and Tenet plans for the region, and issued a special appeal to the United States as the “sponsor of the peace process”.

The Tenet understanding, named after US CIA director George Tenet, sets out a mechanism for implementing a ceasefire, after which the Mitchell plan — a blueprint for getting the peace process back on track — can be launched.

“The Committee appeals to the United States to take firm and immediate measures to force Israel to stop its aggression against the Palestinian people,” the 15 nations said in a final statement.

In what appeared to be a criticism of the UN position, the committee urged the Security Council to send “international protection forces in order to protect the credibility of the UN”.

“The international community must assume responsibility and put pressure on Israel to immediately withdraw its forces from the Palestinian territories,” the statement said.

The meeting on the “dangerous turn of events” in the Middle East was called by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, who heads the Al Quds Committee, an offshoot of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The committee is charged with working for the liberation of Al Quds and the safeguarding of its Arab and Islamic cultural heritage.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was notable for his absence at the meeting, but received strong support. In a message read out at the meeting by Faruq Kaddumi, political bureau head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Arafat called for the protection of the Palestinians against Israel’s “barbaric war”.—AFP