TUNIS: Tunisia will coordinate with fellow Arab countries to contain any fall-out from the US decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said on Friday.
He was speaking to a meeting of Arab foreign ministers on the eve of the annual Arab League summit, hosted this year by Tunisia and likely to focus on Washington’s Golan decision and its earlier move to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“We will work with fellow Arab countries and the international community to contain the expected repercussions of this decision in the various regional and international forums,” Jhinaoui told the meeting in Tunis. He did not elaborate, but Arab countries want Washington to retract its decision and stop other countries following suit.
Arab states, which consider the Golan Heights captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war as occupied Syrian land, have condemned last week’s decision by US President Donald Trump to recognise the plateau as Israeli territory.
Trump also angered Arabs by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv last year.
Tunisia currently holds the rotating presidency of the Arab League and is vying for one of the rotating non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria and Arab East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed both in moves not recognised internationally.
Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al Assaf told the gathering that Saudi Arabia considered the Palestinians’ quest for statehood in Israeli-occupied territory — peace talks have been stalled for five years — to be the central cause for all Arabs.
Assaf also voiced Saudi support for Syria’s territorial integrity and a political solution to its war based on dialogue between the opposition and government, but said a unified Syrian opposition should emerge before the start of any dialogue.
Syria’s membership of the Arab League had been suspended since the country descended into violence in 2011. President Bashar al Assad’s government has regained control over most of the country after years of fighting that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. — Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
