BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 18 (UPI) -- Arab governments and opposition groups condemned Sunday the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi and urged the world to stop Israel.
Lebanese President Emile Lahoud denounced Israel's killing of Rantisi, who was killed by Israeli helicopters in Gaza on Saturday, as "state terrorism" and called for a "day of Arab rage" to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinian leaders and people.
Jordan's powerful Muslim Brotherhood movement described the killing of Rantisi as a "new Israeli crime against the Palestinian people," and called on Arab and Muslim countries which have ties with Israel to immediately sever relations with the Jewish state.
Jordan, the only other Arab country after Egypt to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, officially condemned the Israeli assassination of Rantisi on Saturday night.
The Yemeni government and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates - also denounced the assassination of Rantisi as "organized state terrorism."
Secretary General of the 22-member Arab League Amr Mousa, who sharply condemned the killing in Gaza, criticized the U.S. administration for saying that Israel had the right to self-defense in its reaction to the Israeli operation.
Mousa said that "if there are those who claim Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense in the territories it occupies, then the Palestinians have more right to the same right."
The Organization of Islamic Conference also condemned Israel in a statement issued from its headquarters in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jeddah.
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