Abul-Gheit: Continuation of Israeli aggressive behavior threatens to ignite the region

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abul-Gheit warned yesterday that the continuation of the Israeli aggressive behavior threatens to ignite the region, in a way that will not benefit the security or stability of any party, while the Arab Quartet on the developments of the crisis with Iran, submitted a draft resolution to the meeting of foreign ministers In its new session on Tehran's interventions in the region, the Arab Parliament also announced that it is preparing a unified Arab strategy to deal with the neighboring countries.

Aboul Gheit said during the opening of the Arab League Council at the level of foreign ministers in Cairo yesterday that Israel currently has a political cover provided by the United States to enable it to attack Arab territories in some countries of the region as we have seen in recent weeks. "It is a kind of play with fire and an exhibitionist behavior that has no purpose other than electoral propaganda."

Abul-Gheit warned against a plan to liquidate the Palestinian issue. While reality on the ground does not bode well or is optimistic. "The only plan we see is being implemented today, unfortunately, is the plan to liquidate the case and severely restrict the owners."

He added: «This plan stems from an inverted vision of the situation, that the problem lies in the people under occupation, not in the existing force, or in the reality of the occupation itself».

He continued: «Thus imagine the owners of these visions, that the pressure on the Palestinians and tightening them will make them to accept what they did not accept in the past. Rather than work to end the occupation - the core of the conflict since 1967 - some parties insist on tackling the issue by undermining its main pillars, which enjoy international consensus.

“It has been nearly two years since the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. How many countries have followed suit? One or two countries. The international consensus remains firm about the fact that East Jerusalem is occupied territory and a final-status issue that is not resolved by unilateral declarations, nor by the transfer of embassies and representative offices there. ”

He pointed out that the United States cut off its funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and called for countries to bridge the funding gap, pointing out that Washington is trying, today, to circumvent the mandate given to the Agency under an international resolution issued in 1949.

He said: "I am sure that the vote to renew the mandate in November and December next will reflect the global consensus that refuses to end the role of the Agency in the living of 5.5 million Palestinians, or manipulate the refugee status to empty the issue of refugees."

He stressed that the continuation of the state of internal conflict in some Arab countries, is the first threat to the Arab national security, saying that «these wars, as we have seen during the past years, weaken the immunity of the Arab body. It calls for the intervention of others in our affairs, and opens the door for them to manipulate our destinies by dividing countries into rival militias and rival sects. The purpose of these non-benign interventions is only to expand the sphere of influence, and to conduct proxy battles on Arab lands where Arab blood is flowing to targets that cannot bear good for the Arabs.

He added that «some of these conflicts have worsened, the wound if not addressed spread and incursion in the body», pointing to the military battles in the areas around the Libyan capital Tripoli, and new divisions that threaten the unity of Yemeni soil.

He said that the Houthi party does not have its decision, but receives it from another country, calling on Iran to «lift its hand from the Yemeni arena, and to stop supporting the militias with money and weapons, and to stop turning Yemeni territory into a platform to threaten the security and stability of neighboring countries».

He pointed out that «Iranian interventions in Arab affairs have taken more dangerous and reckless images, in the past months, as it exceeded igniting crises within countries to threaten the security of navigation and energy supplies in the Arabian Gulf».

For his part, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammed Ali al-Hakim, stressed that the complex circumstances of the Arab region, we must not forget the central issue of Arabs, namely the question of Palestine, stressing Iraq's firm position to support the rights of the Palestinian people, and the establishment of an independent state.

Speaking after chairing Arab League Council meetings at the foreign ministers' level, al-Hakim said the world is now preoccupied with the issue of waterways security in the Arabian Gulf, securing the flow of energy or establishing a naval force in the Arabian Gulf region.

He added: «We do not support the plans that lead to raise the state of tension in the region», stressing that the Gulf countries are able to protect navigation, and the flow of energy in this Arab region.

He reviewed his country's efforts in combating ISIS terrorism, stressing that it needs the support of the Arab brothers to eradicate this scourge.

He stressed Iraq 's firm rejection of the Turkish presence on its territory, and works to end it by all means.

The Iraqi minister condemned the Israeli aggression against the Arab countries, affirming his right to self-defense, believing in Iraq the principles of the Arab countries and the charter of the Arab League.

Earlier, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, chaired yesterday, the meeting of the Arab Quartet Ministerial Committee, on the follow-up to the developments of the crisis with Iran.

Cairo hosted the meeting between the Quartet members (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain), in addition to the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, where the current 152nd session of the League Council at the level of Arab foreign ministers, also discuss Iranian interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries , The security of navigation and energy supplies in the Arabian Gulf region, the dangers of Israeli armaments on Arab national security and international peace, the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone and other weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

The Committee reviewed a report prepared by the General Secretariat of the Arab League, on the follow-up to the developments of the crisis with Iran, and ways to address its interventions in the internal affairs of member states politically, economically and media.

This came before the start of the work of the 152nd session of the League Council, at the level of foreign ministers, yesterday, chaired by Iraq to succeed Somalia.

In the same context, the President of the Arab Parliament, Dr. Meshaal bin Fahm al-Selmi, said that the Arab Parliament is currently working on the preparation of a unified Arab strategy, to deal with neighboring countries, stressing that the delicate circumstances witnessed in the Arab world necessitates the unity of the Arab position, and resolutely confront the sinful attacks, And external interventions in Arab affairs.

This came in a statement in Cairo, during his participation in the work of the session, where he said that in the framework of preparing a strategy for dealing with neighboring countries, the parliament held an expanded symposium in the Arab League in which the Secretary-General of the League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and a number of Arab officials and experts, Arab League in support of the Palestinian cause, stressing that the slogan of the session of the Arab Parliament and its documents, «Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of Palestine».

The agenda of the current session included several main items, topped by the Palestinian issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict, supporting the budget of the State of Palestine, and the report and recommendations of the Conference of Supervisors on Palestinian Affairs in the Arab Host Countries.

The agenda also included a report on the work of the Head Office and the Regional Office for the Boycott of Israel, between the two sessions of the Arab League Council (151-152), Arab Water Security, Israel's theft of water in the occupied Arab territories, and the occupied Syrian Arab Golan.

The session also discussed other issues of solidarity with Lebanon, developments in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and Iran's occupation of the three Arab islands (Lesser Tunb, Greater Tunb, and Abu Musa) of the UAE in the Arabian Gulf.

The session will also discuss taking a unified Arab position on Turkish forces' violation of Iraqi sovereignty, support for peace and development in the Republic of Sudan, support for the Federal Republic of Somalia, support for the United Republic of Comoros, and peaceful resolution of the Djibouti-Eritrea border dispute.