FM slams Israel, calls for Arab unity in Cairo meeting

AMMAN — The crises facing the Arab world have been exacerbated in a way that threatens pan-Arab security while the Arab role in addressing regional challenges still has “little or no impact”, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Wednesday. 

During his address at the Cairo-hosted 153rd ordinary session of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level, Safadi said that Arabs cannot remain on the sidelines while other actors fill the vacuum as a result of the lack of an effective Arab role, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.  

Arab security is “in danger”, as generations in turbulent Arab countries have become used to war and destruction, being raised in environments of despair and deprivation in the absence of schools, healthcare and hope, the minister noted. 

Opportunities to reach a just peace that Arabs adopted as a strategic option are being killed by illegitimate Israeli measures carried out on a daily basis by imposing new painful facts on the ground, Safadi said. 

He added that Arabs unanimously agree that the establishment of a viable and independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital with the Hashemite Custodianship to defend Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, is the only means to peace. 

The foreign minister said that Arab stances and talks that are based on international legitimacy resolutions are met with Israeli actions that disregard international law and reject the land-for-peace principle as a means to reach peace. 

As for the Syrian crisis, the minister said that “it remains a catastrophe with no end on the horizon”; the biggest victims are the Syrian people and the Syrian state, according to the statement. 

Arabs are those who have suffered the most from the repercussions of the crisis and “exert the least collective effort” in addressing the problem, Safadi said.

Syria has become an “arena for regional and international conflicts, where Arabs are standing idle at a time in which others are imposing their own roles and agenda”, the statement quoted the foreign minister as saying.  

The minister said that Libya is also undergoing similar conditions, where the “regionalisation and internationalisation” of the crisis have become a “reality” at the expense of an Arab country and pan-Arab national interests.  

The security of Arab Gulf countries remains a “major pillar” of collective Arab security, the minister said.

Iraq has been pushed into chaos threatening its achievements in efforts towards reconstruction and stability after winning over terrorist organisations, Safadi said.  

Meanwhile, on the sidelines of the ministerial summit, Safadi headed a meeting of member countries of the Arab Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement (Aghadir Agreement), during which Lebanon and Palestine joined. Parties to the agreement already included Jordan, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.

The minister also met with his Egyptian, Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Palestinian, Lebanese and Tunisian counterparts over means to develop bilateral cooperation.

The meeting also discussed recent regional developments and endeavours to reach solutions to Middle East crises and means to activate joint Arab action.