Kuwaiti MP calls to move Arab League to Caracas

Says Chavez “proved that he was more Arab than some Arabs"

Kuwaiti MP calls to move Arab League to Caracas

MP Tabtabai also for refusing to open the Rafah border crossing

KUWAIT CITY (AlArabiya.net, AFP)

A Kuwaiti Islamist MP called on Wednesday for moving Arab League headquarters from Cairo to Caracas after Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves expelled Israel’s ambassador because of its onslaught on the Gaza Strip.

"I call for moving the Arab League from Cairo to Caracas," MP Waleed al-Tabtabai said during a special debate in parliament over the Israeli offensive.

Tabtabai said that Chavez "has proved that he was more Arab than some Arabs," after he expelled the Israeli ambassador in protest against the Israeli offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Chavez expelled Israel's ambassador to Caracas on Jan. 6 and Israel retaliated a day later, saying it was expelling Venezuela's charge d'affaires.

Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania, the only Arab countries to have diplomatic ties with the Jewish state, have ignored public calls to expel Israeli diplomats. An Israeli trade office in Qatar also remains open.

Tabtabai also criticized Egypt, which hosts the headquarters of the 22-member Arab League, for "refusing to open the Rafah" border crossing to allow the passage of food and medical supplies to the battered Palestinian territory.

He was echoed by other MPs who also called for sending more aid to the Palestinians in Gaza.

Shiite MP Ahmad Lari urged Kuwaitis to donate on month of their wages to the people of Gaza.

At least 1,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,500 other wounded, many of them civilians, in the Israeli offensive that entered its 19th day on Wednesday.