Germany asks Israel to consider Arab proposals (Roundup)

Jan 1, 2009, 14:12 GMT

Berlin - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed on Thursday to Israel to respond 'constructively' to Arab League efforts for a halt in the fighting in the Gaza Strip.

He telephoned Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to voice 'his great concern about the continuation of the fighting,' his office said in Berlin.

He told her the fighting endangered progress to date in the Middle East peace process and undermined the stance of those Arabs who were willing to engage with Israel.

But he also said the pre-condition for a truce had to be the cessation of missile attacks against Israel by the radical Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip.

Foreign Ministry aides said he also spoke with Amr Mussa, secretary general of the Arab League, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit by phone so he could hear about the outcome of Wednesday's Arab League meeting.

A spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel meanwhile rejected criticism of her forthright support for Israel during the conflict with Hamas.

Merkel's assessment, offered during her New Year address, matched that of the European Union foreign ministers, the spokesman said.

She had made it clear that she too desired a truce in the fighting as soon as possible, he added.

'However conditions have to be met, and the most important condition in the view of the chancellor is that Israel's security must be secured,' said the spokesman at her office.

Merkel and Steinmeier are political rivals who are set to go head to head at this year's German general election. Steinmeier is seeking the chancellorship as nomineed of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Merkel accused Hamas of terrorism in her New Year address. On Monday, her deputy spokesman Thomas Steg had said 'the cause and effect' of this week's fighting should not be muddled with one another or ignored.

The International League for Human Rights, a pacifist organization active in Germany, had accused Merkel of 'encouraging Israel to continue war crimes in the Gaza Strip' and demanded she pressure Israel into a ceasefire.

'If she does not, she will be guilty of increasing the spiral of violence,' the group charged.

Rolf Muetzenich, an SPD deputy, also criticized her, saying, 'It is not the right thing at the current time to discuss who is to blame.' He said the priority should be a truce.

But Muetzenich said he accepted that Israel was right to defend itself against Hamas attacks.