TEHRAN Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah criticized the U.S. Middle East policy and announced that his country may cut ties with the countries backing Israel.
The New York Times wrote on Monday that Prince Abdullah who is in control of almost all affairs of the country next to the ailing Saudi King has criticized the U.S. for defending Israel after many years of serving as a U.S. ally.
The daily added that anger of the Saudi people against Israel has been intensified due to the massacre of the Palestinian people by the Israeli military forces in the recent two months.
Abdullah has advised the U.S. to take immediate positive step towards materialization of Arab-Israeli peace without backing the latter; otherwise, situation in the region will aggravate.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers and Palestinians fought isolated gun battles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the early hours of Tuesday, further eroding hopes of ending the worst violence in years.
The new clashes also set back Barak's hopes of securing a peace deal with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat which he hopes would help him win a general election expected in May.
The Israeli Army said Palestinian gunmen opened fire during the night at troops near the West Bank town of Jenin and shot at a Jewish settlement in the divided West Bank city of Al-Khalil.
The army returned fire but no injuries were reported.
The army said assailants who placed an explosive device on a bypass road near Jenin came under fire from Israeli forces as they fled the spot and the device was defused.
It said a bomb exploded near an army convoy in Gaza, but no one was hurt.
Palestinian officials did not immediately comment on the overnight violence. Each side blames the other for the unrest in which nearly 300 people have been killed since Palestinians began an uprising for independence more than two months ago.
Israeli troops unleashed heavy machine-gun fire on a West Bank Palestinian town while Benjamin Netanyahu staged what could be the opening shot of a comeback bid.
The army said it fired at the town of Beit Jala after dark in response to Palestinian gunfire on an Israeli Army post in the Zionist settlement Gilo at the edge of Bait-ul-Moqaddas (Jerusalem).
The sound of gunfire echoed across the hills of the holy city.
A hospital said two Palestinians were killed and another two were wounded during the clashes.
Also, a Jewish settler in the West Bank was shot and wounded by Israeli Army fire, a military source said Tuesday.
The injured man, a taxi driver in the Jewish settlement of Shavei Shomron, near Nablus, was injured in the foot when the troops opened fire on his car on Monday, thinking he was trying to smash through a road block.
UN Middle East special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said on Tuesday almost 10 weeks of clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians could rapidly deteriorate into a regional war.
He urged Israel to lift a blockade of Palestinian areas and called for Palestinian and Israeli leaders to quickly revive the peace process suspended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak last month because of the Palestinian uprising.
"The situation as it is now is not tenable. It may continue the way it is right now for a few more weeks... It could deteriorate sharply, dramatically and tragically, which may produce regional spillovers so we will face a regional war," Larsen told Reuters in an interview.
In the meantime, a growing number of Arabs are demanding a boycott of U.S. firms and products, in a groundswell of protest over what they see as us support for Israel in its bloody crackdown on the Palestinians.
Muslim clerics are now adding their voice, giving a dimension of religious duty to boycott calls made earlier by students, unions, opposition groups and others in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Morocco and Persian Gulf Arab states.
Analysts said the calls had more of a symbolic than financial impact, but might later serve to force Arab governments into reviving the past boycott on firms dealing with Israel.
Also a top Muslim cleric in Pakistan on Tuesday issued a religious edict or fatwa calling for a boycott of U.S. products because of Washington's support for Israel.
"I call on all the Muslims in Pakistan not to buy any U.S. products as it is responsible for the killings of Palestinian brothers by giving all-out support to Israel," said Mufti Shamazai, a leading Sunni scholar who heads the country's biggest Islamic seminary based in Karachi.
Meanwhile, an anti-Israeli session was held in the University of Shiraz on Monday in support for the suppressed Palestinians.
Students attending the conference announced their congruity with the Palestinians and condemned Israeli brutalities in the Middle East. They also called on the students to pay more attention to the Palestinian uprising (Intifada).
Meanwhile, an official in the special headquarters to support Palestinian Intifada said yesterday that the Islamic Republic is setting up a clinic for the injured Palestinian in Jordan.
According to Ramezan Sharif, Iran is setting up the hospital to voice its support for the Palestinians and deliver them health services.
Sharif said that the headquarters is being made by the cooperation of Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, Society of Red Crescent, Islamic Culture and Communications Organization, Basij (volunteer forces), Janbazan and Mostazafan Foundation and Bonyad-e Shahid (Martyr Foundation).
Almost 300 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in more than two months of Israeli-Palestinian clashes.