GUY RAZ, host:
As Israeli ground forces flooded into Gaza today, dismay and anger spread throughout the Arab world, and diplomats are frustrated. The European Union's foreign policy chief said the international community's inability to end the violence was, quote, "a very serious failure." NPR's Peter Kenyon has more from Cairo.
PETER KENYON: As Israeli troops, tanks, aircraft, and warships continue to pound the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rockets sailed into southern Israel, thousands of demonstrators raised their voices against the violence.
(Soundbite of demonstration, Istanbul, Turkey)
Unidentified Demonstrator: (Turkish Spoken)
KENYON: Most of the demonstrators, as in this gathering in Istanbul, focused their anger on the actions of the Israeli army, although there were scattered calls for Hamas to stop the rocket fire as well. There were very large protests in Morocco, Australia, and many European countries. Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's office released a statement condemning the Israeli ground offensive, and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said some of the blame belongs at the feet of the U.N. Security Council. The Council failed to approve a statement overnight calling for an immediate cease-fire. Abul Gheit said the Security Council's silence, quote, "was interpreted by Israel as a green light." U.N. delegates said it was the United States that had blocked the statement from being approved. Egypt's U.N. ambassador, Maged Abdelaziz, was frustrated.
Ambassador MAGED ABDELAZIZ (Egyptian Ambassador to the U.N.): So at the time that the aggression is escalating and more people are dying and the military attack on the ground is at its full scale, we find regrettably that the Security Council is downgrading its response to the question.
KENYON: Egypt has itself come in for a large share of the criticism in the Arab world for failing to open its border with Gaza except to the most urgent humanitarian aid. The heaviest criticism has come from Hamas' most powerful backer, Iran, where former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, as broadcast by the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, called on Muslims to provide both humanitarian and military supplies to the people of Gaza.
Former President HASHEMI RAFSANJANI (Iran): (Through Translator) There is no shortage of fighters in Gaza. The Islamic nation should extend political assistance and give weapons to the people in Gaza.
KENYON: An Iranian military commander also called on Muslim oil producers to halt sales to Israel's supporters, according to the official Iranian news agency. A European Union delegation is heading for the region in an effort to revive diplomatic efforts. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was blunt about how little diplomacy has achieved so far.
Dr. JAVIER SOLANA (EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy): For the moment, it has been a very serious failure of diplomacy, therefore a failure of the international community to handle this conflict. We will do our best to continue putting on the pressure, with all the efforts to bring a cease-fire, and the sooner the better.
KENYON: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown sounded more urgent in his latest comments.
Prime Minister GORDON BROWN (United Kingdom): We need an immediate cease-fire. The blame game can continue afterwards. But this dangerous moment, I think, requires us to act. There are talks that are going on that would actually take us beyond the immediate violence into the sort of solutions we want. But the very events that we're seeing emphasize what the real challenge is. Israel needs to be secure. Palestine needs to be viable.
KENYON: Israeli and U.S. officials, however, insist that any cease-fire must be durable. And military analysts say that suggests that Israel intends to weaken Hamas further before seriously pursuing a cessation of hostilities. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Cairo.