RIYADH - Saudi Arabia urged the United States on Monday to prevail on Israel to change the policy of "war" and "kidnappings" it is practicing in the Palestinian territories.
"The United States and the international community must shoulder their responsibilities to bring an end to these Israeli practices," said a statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
"The war, sieges, assassinations, detentions and kidnappings carried out by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories will not give Israel peace and tranquillity," said the statement carried by the official SPA news agency.
The Saudi government also urged Washington to "give momentum to the peace process" in the Middle East.
The Israeli army on Sunday arrested the Hamas secretary of the Palestinian parliament, Mahmud al-Ramhi, the latest in a string of elected officials of the ruling Islamist movement detained by the Jewish state.
Israel has detained dozens of Hamas officials, including ministers, since a June 25 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip in which Palestinian militants seized an Israeli soldier.
08/21/2006 20:39 GMT