Today, Tuesday, the 162nd session of the Council of the League of Arab States will be held at the level of foreign ministers at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States in Cairo, where the ministers will discuss stopping the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the West Bank and supporting Palestine internationally.
The meetings of the session, chaired by the Republic of Yemen, which assumes the presidency after the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, will be attended by Arab foreign ministers and heads of delegations, in addition to Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the League, and a number of Assistant Secretaries-General.
The meetings will be attended by a number of prominent international figures, such as Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Philippe Lazzarini, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and Sigrid Kaag, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in Gaza.
The Council, at the level of foreign ministers, is discussing ways to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza and the West Bank and the crimes of genocide committed by the occupation forces against the Palestinian people over the course of more than 11 months, which have resulted in the martyrdom, injury and disappearance of more than 145,000 Palestinian civilians.
The Council also discusses taking political, diplomatic and legal measures to stop the aggressive Israeli policies that seek to displace the Palestinian people from their land in a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a threat to Arab national security, and the impact of these policies on the collapse of peace opportunities in the region and the exacerbation of the conflict.
During its meetings, the Council will confirm its continued support for Palestine to obtain full membership in the United Nations,” according to the Emirates News Agency, WAM.
Former Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister Ambassador Ali Al-Hanafi said, “The meeting of Arab foreign ministers will discuss a number of Arab cooperation files and strengthening joint Arab action, with the Palestinian issue at the forefront of this session, as it is the central Arab issue, in light of the ongoing Israeli war on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the presence of an “extremist” Israeli government with a group of extremist ministers who reject any opportunity to stop the war and cease fire, and that government does not allow cooperation with mediators in Egypt and Qatar to reach a ceasefire deal.”
He stressed that “the Arab foreign ministers are well aware that the continuation of this situation carries a set of risks for the entire region, most notably the extension of the confrontation and the increase in the scope of the war, at a time when the region needs a state of stability, security and peace. However, the Israeli side has its own agenda that it is working towards and its plan to increase the annexation of Arab lands, all of which are completely far from the Arab vision that rejects that agenda and those Israeli plans.”
The meeting of Arab foreign ministers scheduled for today, Tuesday, is the fourth meeting of Arab foreign ministers since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Arab foreign ministers have held 5 ministerial meetings, including an emergency meeting, a regular session, and a preparatory meeting. The last of these was the preparatory meeting of the Arab foreign ministers for the Arab summit held in the Bahraini capital, Manama, on May 14. It was preceded by the meeting of the Arab foreign ministers on March 6 during the 161st regular session of the Arab League Council.
The Arab League also held an emergency meeting of the League Council at the ministerial level on October 11, days after the Israeli war on Gaza, to discuss ways of political action at the Arab and international levels to stop the Israeli aggression and hold its perpetrators accountable, to provide international protection for the Palestinian people, and to achieve peace and security based on international law, international legitimacy resolutions, and the peace initiative.
In light of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the Council of the League of Arab States held two emergency meetings, an extraordinary session to support the Federal Republic of Somalia in the face of the attack on its sovereignty and territorial integrity on January 17 of this year, via video conference, and days after the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Ethiopia and the Somaliland region.
On the same day, the Arab foreign ministers held an extraordinary session to discuss the latest developments and events that occurred in the Iraqi arena regarding the Iranian forces’ shelling of a number of areas in the city of Erbil in northern Iraq.
It is noteworthy that Turkey is participating in the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Arab League for the first time after an absence of 13 years. After the start of the war in Gaza, Turkey joined a joint contact group formed at a summit of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation with the aim of ending the war. Turkey’s relations with the Arab League began to develop since 2003, and a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Secretariat of the Arab League in 2004. On September 13, 2011, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech at the opening session of the Arab League meeting, during his tenure as Prime Minister at the time.
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2024-09-12 05:39:22