Arab leaders meet on Gaza as Israel presses offensive

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Muslim nations "need to cut relations with Israel and America."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attends an emergency Arab summit in Doha Jan. 16, 2009. The summit on Friday was attended by about 12 to 13 Arab leaders despite it did not reach the quorum of two thirds of the 22-member Arab League to hold such a summit. (Xinhua/Li Zhiping)

In Kuwait City, Arab foreign ministers met to address the Israeli offensive, adopting a proposal that called for a halt to the "Israeli aggression" in Gaza.

The proposal called for lifting the Israeli blockade in the Palestinian territory and opening of all border crossings with Gaza.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin al-Faisal urged the concerned parties to move effectively to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1860, which called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip "leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces."

Prince al-Faisal said the current stage needed to carry out the first of several steps to support Egyptian efforts to provide mechanisms for the rapid implementation of the resolution.

In the Egyptian capital Cairo, whirlwind diplomacy is on.

Amos Gilad, head of the Diplomatic-Security Bureau of the Israeli Defense Ministry, left Cairo after a several-hour visit Friday without announcing any progress in talks with Egyptian mediators on a ceasefire deal with Hamas. It was his second visit to Egypt in two days.