The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said that the Bashar al-Assad’s return to occupy Syria’s seat at the Arab League was “premature” in an indication that there is no Arab consensus around the issue.
This came in a statement Gheit gave to Euronews following the Arab summit in Tunisia.
Regarding how the Arab resolution around the Golan was reached, Aboul Gheit said that not a single Arab country opposed the resolution rejecting the annexation of the Golan and the American recognition of that.
At the end of its 30th session, held in Tunis on Mar. 31, 2019, the Arab League issued a statement regarding the American decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, saying:
“We, the leaders of the Arab nations, who gathered in Tunis on Mar. 31, 2019, confirm our commitment to the fixed Arab principles, foremost of which is not to undermine the sovereignty of Arab states as a basic principle. We declare our rejection and condemnation of the United States decision issued on Mar. 25, 2019, to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, and consider it void in form and content, and to represent a dangerous violation of the United Nations Charter, which stipulates the impermissibility of acquiring the territory of others by force, and the unanimously-issued Security Council resolutions 242 for the year 1967 and 497 for the year 1981, which unambiguously refer to the non-recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Syrian Arab Golan.”
The Arab League also called for a “comprehensive political settlement in the region” and warned that the “divisions and conflicts are draining its wealth.” The statement said that: “Arab and national interests represent a necessary starting point to strengthening the security and stability of the Arab region.”
It stressed that: “Achieving peace, stability and security in the Middle East is based primarily on a just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian issue and for the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.”
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
