The Arab-Islamic summit, held in Riyadh on Saturday, issued a final statement that emphasized the need to end the blockade on Gaza and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid, including food, medicine, and fuel, to the besieged enclave.
The statement praised Egypt’s efforts to provide aid to Gaza in a timely, sustainable, and sufficient manner, and backed all the measures taken by Egypt to deal with the aftermath of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza.
The statement urged the Security Council to adopt an urgent resolution condemning Israel’s barbaric destruction of hospitals in Gaza.
The summit denounced the Israeli aggression on Gaza, which constitutes war crimes and barbaric massacres, and called on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an immediate investigation into the war crimes committed by Israel. The statement rejected the portrayal of the offensive on Gaza as self-defence and called on all countries to stop supplying weapons and ammunition to the occupying power.
The summit also demanded the Security Council to adopt a decisive and binding resolution that would stop the aggression and restrain the colonial occupation authority, which violates international law, international humanitarian law, and the resolutions of international legitimacy, and considered the failure to do so as complicity that enables Israel to continue its savage aggression that kills innocent children, elderly and women and devastates Gaza.
The leaders affirmed their total and absolute rejection and collective resistance to any attempts of individual or collective forced transfer, displacement, exile, or deportation of the Palestinian people, whether inside Gaza or the West Bank, including Jerusalem or outside their territory to any other destination whatsoever, as a red line and a war crime.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that Egypt has repeatedly warned of the consequences of unilateral policies, and now warns that the inaction to halt the war in Gaza could lead to the escalation of military conflicts in the region.
In his speech at the Arab-Islamic summit, President Al-Sisi stressed the need to settle the conflict, based on the two-state solution, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
For his part, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed to the Security Council to fulfill its responsibilities and stop the brutal aggression on the Palestinian people, ensure the delivery of medical and food aid, provide water, electricity, and fuel to Gaza, and prevent the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
He said that the military and security solutions have failed and that the occupation authorities have undermined the two-state solution by expanding settlements, annexing lands, carrying out ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination in the West Bank and Jerusalem, imposing a siege on Gaza, and violating the status quo of the Islamic and Christian holy sites.
“We will remain steadfast on our land and will not give up the legitimate rights of our people,” Abbas concluded.
King Abdullah II of Jordan affirms that the two-state solution is the only way to end the bloodshed in Palestine
He said that Israel’s denial of food and medicine to Gaza is a war crime and that the war in Gaza is a continuation of a conflict that has lasted for more than 70 years.
On the sidelines of the Arab-Islamic summit, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi held bilateral meetings with King Abdullah II of Jordan, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and Sudanese Sovereign Council Chairperson Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
The talks focused on enhancing bilateral relations and exchanging views on the situation in Gaza, and the actions needed to alleviate the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinians in the enclave. The president briefed them on Egypt’s efforts to promote calm and ceasefire, as well as its provision and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the civilians in Gaza.
