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Ahram Online
“The liberation of all Arab occupied territories is the only way to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said in his speech during the opening session of the 30th Arab Summit in Tunisia on Sunday.
He added that the crises that broke out in many Arab countries eight years ago threaten the existence of nation states and the principle of Arab unity, and stressed the necessity of unifying Arab action to face these challenges.
The Egyptian president said that the persistence of the historical injustice against the Palestinian people will continue to be a source of disgrace for the international community as long as international legitimacy resolutions are ignored.
Al-Sisi reaffirmed the Palestinian people’s right to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and said that the Israeli occupied Golan Heights must be returned to Syria in order to work towards a comprehensive and just peace.
The Egyptian president said that peaceful negotiations based on the Geneva accords are the only way out to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Egypt, along with Arab countries, has rejected President’s Donald Trump’s recent decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, and also opposes Trump’s previous decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.
In addition, Sisi added that confronting terrorism, which threatens the existence of nation states in the Arab region, requires the quick implementation of the comprehensive approach to combating the phenomenon as stipulated by the Arab League and adopted by the recent Arab summit in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia.
“Arab blood is sometimes shed by Arab hands, and other times by foreign terrorists and militias affiliated with regional powers interfering in our nations’ affairs,” Sisi added.
On Syria, the Egyptian president called for immediate action to begin negotiations to achieve a comprehensive settlement that preserves the unity and territorial integrity of Syria and eliminates terrorism in the country.
Moreover, on settling the Libyan crisis efforts, he urged immediate action to implement the UN Security Council initiative adopted 18 month ago.
“What is needed [in Libya] is a political will that transcends all personal interests and ambitions. The international community must firmly stand against the forces — which are known to all — that continue to smuggle weapons and fighters into Libya without any accountability,” the Egyptian president said.
Finally, on Yemen, Sisi called for implementing the recent Stockholm agreement and the Houthi withdrawal from Al-Hudaydah port as a start of resuming negotiations in accordance with UN resolution 2216, the Yemeni national dialogue and the Gulf Cooperation Council initiative.
