RAMALLAH, Jan 16: A senior West Bank Palestinian official slammed Qatar's emir on Friday for hosting an emergency Arab summit on the Gaza war, accusing him of using Palestinian “blood” for political gain.

“Neither the emir of Qatar (Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani) nor anyone else will decide the fate of the Palestinian people,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official in Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

The Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is not attending the summit, to which Qatar invited Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of the Hamas movement, which drove Abbas's forces from Gaza in June 2007.

The PLO includes Abbas's secular Fatah party and several other Palestinian factions but not Hamas.

“It appears the emir of Qatar has goals he wants to achieve by exploiting Palestinian blood,” said Abed Rabbo, who is close to Abbas.

Palestinian officials in the West Bank privately accuse Qatar, which does not hide its support for Hamas, of giving legitimacy to Meshaal at the expense of Abbas.

Abbas is considered a close ally of Saudi Arabia and Egypt, two regional heavyweights that have had strained relations with Qatar and which are boycotting the meeting.

Qatar has in recent years managed a delicate balancing act between the United States, which bases troops there, Israel, which has a commercial office in Doha.

On Friday the Gulf emirate, which also hosts the pan-Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera, called on Arab states to reconsider their relations with Israel. —AFP