Riyadh
The head of the Arab League expressed hope that the Biden administration will change President Donald Trump’s policies and launch a political process supported by regional and international parties to achieve independence for the Palestinians.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the 22-member organisation, told the United Nations Security Council that a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict “has been marginalised by the main mediator in the peace process”, a reference to the United States.
“This encouraged the Israeli government to intensify its settlement activities and to threaten to take dangerous and destructive steps such as annexing occupied land,” he said.
The Arab League chief addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a wide-ranging briefing on the crises and conflicts in the Middle East.
He also referred without name to Iran, saying that “some regional powers are interfering in the affairs of the Arab region” by adversely affecting “the security of international maritime navigation routes which are a lifeline for international trade”, a reference to freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf.
“It has also become apparent that this interference perpetuates existing conflicts and further complicates them,” he said, without directly citing Iran’s support for Syrian President Bashar Assad, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
Aboul Gheit said the Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts and crises have created “a dangerous mix that has taken a heavy toll on the peoples of the region”, pointing to 10 years of civil war in Syria, Yemen’s war entering its seventh year and “entrenched divisions in Libya”.
He spoke a day after Israeli authorities advanced plans to build nearly 800 homes in West Bank settlements, in a last-minute surge of approvals before US President Donald Trump leaves office on Wednesday and Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th US president. Palestinian leaders denounced the Israeli action.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state. They say the growing settler population, approaching some 500,000 people, makes it increasingly difficult to achieve their dream of independence.
Aboul Gheit said that “significant efforts” need to be made by all parties in coming months to reaffirm the two-state solution.
“We look forward to the new American administration rectifying policies and processes that are not useful and engage in a fruitful political process with the support of influential regional and international parties,” he said. “This would give the Palestinian people renewed hope that the international community would stand by its side in its noble aspiration to achieve freedom and independence.”—AP
