With the participation of Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad for the first time in nearly 12 years, the meeting of Arab foreign ministers began today (Wednesday) to prepare the agenda for the upcoming Arab summit the day after tomorrow (Friday), in Jeddah. Algeria handed over the presidency of the 32nd Arab Summit to Saudi Arabia, and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah welcomed the Arab delegations. He said that the world is going through great challenges that require us to unite to face them, calling on everyone to devise new mechanisms to face the challenges facing countries. Prince Faisal stressed that the Arab countries need joint action for the advancement of the Arab peoples, and the Foreign Minister welcomed Syria’s participation in the Arab Summit and its return to the League of Arab States.
In the delivery speech, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ataf called for resolving Arab differences within the Arab House, stressing that the upcoming summit seeks to unite the word to face the challenges in the region. Ataf stressed the need to pay attention to the changes taking place in the world, because they will change the balance of power, saying: We must move with developments. The Algerian minister announced his country’s support for Saudi Arabia’s efforts to cease fire in Sudan and resolve the crisis. He welcomed Syria’s return to its seat in the Arab League, pointing out that the Libyan-Libyan dialogue alone will restore stability to Libya. He demanded the need to continue efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation and national unity. He stressed support for the aspirations of the Yemeni people to restore their security and stability, hoping that Lebanon would witness an understanding among its people to resolve its internal crisis.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, announced that the Arab presence at the Jeddah summit is complete, welcoming the return of Syria to occupy its seat. Aboul Gheit held the Israeli government responsible for the deterioration of the situation in the Palestinian territories, warning that the situation there is approaching the stage of explosion. Aboul Gheit pointed out that there are positive indications from Iran and Turkey to stop their interference in the affairs of Arab countries. Regarding the crises in Syria, Yemen and Libya, he considered that they need approaches in order to get them out of the stalemate. He stressed that the Jeddah summit is an opportunity to put an end to the manifestations of armaments in Sudan.
It is scheduled that the Arab leaders will meet (Friday) in Jeddah, to hold the activities of the Arab summit in its thirty-second regular session, which discusses the most important Arab and international issues.
The ministerial meeting was preceded by several other meetings, the most important of which was the meeting of the Quartet Arab Ministerial Committee concerned with following up the developments of the Iranian file, as well as the meeting of the Arab Ministerial Committee concerned with following up Turkish interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries, as well as the meeting of the open-ended Arab Ministerial Committee to support the State of Palestine.
