Al-Mikdad at the 160th ministerial meeting of AL Council: Joint Arab action necessary for confronting the challenges facing the Arab nation

Cairo – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Fayssal Mikdad, affirmed that Arab national security is indivisible and the challenges facing many Arab countries, including foreign interventions in their internal affairs, military attacks, foreign occupation of parts of their lands, the spread of terrorism, poverty, and the decline in development indicators, threaten Arab security as a whole and require strong Arab action to eliminate them.

He made the remarks on Wednesday during the 160th ministerial meeting of the Arab League (AL) Council in Cairo.

He explained that “the West wants to impose its own rules on other peoples of the world, including our peoples, although it knows well that these rules are inconsistent with our morals and values, aiming at dominating and controlling our peoples, laws, thinking, judiciary and the independence and sovereignty of our countries”.

He stressed that the repercussions of these policies on the Arab countries require strengthening joint Arab action to takle Arab issues and develop the work mechanism of the Arab League based on transparent dialogue, mutual respect and common interest.

Al-Mikdad said that the Jeddah Arab Summit has been a turning point as it signaled the beginning of a new phase of joint Arab action that serves the region’s countries, so “all of us should adhere to what was achieved at Jeddah Summit, because preserving Arab national security requires Arab cooperation to solve the crises hitting Libya, Yemen and Sudan away from foreign interference, and to end the continuous Turkish military interventions in Syria and other Arab countries which poses a threat to Arab national security and interests.

He said that Syria is cooperating with the Arab Liaison Committee on the basis of full commitment to its sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity and non-interference in its internal affairs, and based on its conviction of the importance of  the Arab role in supporting the Syrian people to overcome the repercussions of the terrorist war and overcome the challenges, foremost of which combating all forms of terrorism and ending illegal foreign military presence on Syrian territory.

The challenges facing Syria pose a threat to Arab national security as a whole, said Al-Mikdad, clarifying that the terrorism that has targeted Syria and many Arab countries, in addition to the Turkish and American occupation of parts of the Syrian territories, threaten Arab interests in general and require concerted efforts to overcome such challenges.

In addition, Al-Mikdad said, the repeated Israeli attacks on Syria, “Israel’s” settlement expansion in Palestine and the occupied Syrian Golan and its attempts to impose its illegal measures to annex East Al-Quds and the occupied Syrian Golan require mobilizing international support and pressure to stop these acts and end their threat to international peace and security and to the chances of achieving just and comprehensive peace in the region based on complete “Israeli” withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territory and from the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of June 4, 1967, and the establishment of the Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.

Hamda Mustafa