NEW YORK: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah has attended the UN Security Council’s emergency session on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian cause, upon an invitation from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Wednesday.
Delivering a speech at the UNSC session, he said that the Security Council’s meeting on Wednesday was the 2nd to be held under the same difficult and painful situation in Gaza, saying that, since the previous session, the death toll in the Gaza Strip reached over 14,000, 67% of whom were children and women, with the total number of the displaced exceeding half a million people as a result of the horrific military escalation by the Israeli occupation forces and their continued violation of global charters and resolutions, and the common humanitarian principles and values, the SPA maintained. The Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs also underscored that the complete absence of global accountability mechanisms prevails in light of this UNSC’s inability to take any deterrent steps against these violations.
Saudi Foreign Minister Participates in UN Security Council Session on Situation in Middle East, Palestinian Cause.https://t.co/okzeg2BY3G#SPAGOV pic.twitter.com/m12arHjWOz
— SPAENG (@Spa_Eng) November 30, 2023
Prince Faisal also noted that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) hosted the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit in Riyadh on November 11, 2023 came out of its complete rejection of this painful reality and its call for an immediate action to bring an end to it, saying that the resolutions of the summit represent the will of Arab and Islamic peoples that seek to end bloodshed and unconditionally deliver relief help, end the violations and the large-scale suffering of the people of Palestine and support them in realizing their legal rights and establishing their independent state, the SPA reported.
Saudi FM Participates in UNSC Session on Situation in Middle East, Palestinian Cause: SPA
The Minister further said that the message of the Joint Arab-Islamic summit is clear and unified: an immediate and permanent truce that establishes a credible and genuine peace process.
He maintained, “Nations that seek justice and peace, and seek to preserve the legitimacy and solidity of the global system, whose credibility has been shaken as a result of its slow approach to this humanitarian crisis must add their voices to ours.”
The Saudi Foreign Minister welcomed the humanitarian ceasefire reached in Gaza, voicing in this regard the efforts of Egypt, Qatar, and the US, which came as the first step to release detainees and prisoners and enable the return of the displaced and deliver adequate help to them. He said this step is not enough in light of the current restrictions of the numbers of trucks entering into the Gaza Strip.
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Prince Faisal underscored the need for an unobstructed and sustainable delivery of humanitarian help into the Gaza Strip and removing all unjustified restrictions and additional complications as the situation of civilian population can no longer tolerate any delay in the arrival of immediate aid to them, stressing the significance of implementing the UNSC Resolution No. 2712, and building on it to reach a comprehensive and immediate truce. He said that the truce does not relieve the Israeli side of its responsibilities within the framework of global law and global humanitarian law, and that the baseless pretexts for self-defense are unacceptable and irrational in light of the humanitarian tragedies repeated on a daily basis in the Gaza Strip, the SPA reported.
At the end of his speech, he called for the issuance of global recognition under a UNSC resolution of the independent state of Palestine, and for it to gain full membership in the UN, renewing the call for holding an international peace conference, under the auspices of the UN, through which a serious and reliable peace process would be launched that guarantees the implementation of the two-state solution on the basis of international legitimacy resolutions.
