CAIRO, 12 Feb: Dozens of leaders and senior officials from Arab and Islamic countries warned on Sunday Israeli actions in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank could worsen regional turmoil, as violence surges between Israel and the Palestinians.
\nThe meeting in Cairo was hosted by the Arab League and attended by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, Jordan\u2019s King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas along with many foreign ministers and senior officials.
\nThe high-level gathering came amid one of the deadliest periods of fighting in years in Jerusalem and the neighboring Israeli-occupied territory. Forty-five Palestinians have been killed so far this year, according to a count by The Associated Press. Palestinians have killed 10 people on the Israeli side during that time.
\nSpeakers at the meeting condemned Israel\u2019s \u201cunilateral measures\u201d in Jerusalem and the West Bank in statements, including home demolitions and expanding settlements.
\nThey also condemned visits by Israeli officials to the city\u2019s contested holy site, which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims and has often been the epicenter of Israeli-Palestinian unrest.
\nThere was no immediate comment from Israel\u2019s government.
\nThe officials also voiced support for Jordan\u2019s role as custodian of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. The mosque is built on a hilltop in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount because it was the site of the Jewish temples in antiquity.
\nSince Israel captured the site in the 1967 Mideast War, Jews have been allowed to visit but not pray there. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its undivided capital, while the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.
\nCalling Jerusalem \u201cthe backbone of the Palestinian cause,\u201d el-Sissi warned of dire repercussions of any Israeli move to change the status quo of the holy site, saying they would \u201cnegatively impact\u201d future negotiations to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. AP<\/p>\n
He said such measures would impede the long-sought after two-state solution to the conflict, which would leave \u201cboth parties and the whole Middle East with difficult and grave options.\u201d
\nEl-Sissi, whose country was the first Arab nation to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, called on the international community to \u201creinforce the two-state solution and create conducive conditions for the resumption of the peace process.\u201d
\nKing Abdullah II also called for Israel to cease its violations and incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
\n\u201cThe region cannot live in peace, stability, and prosperity without any progress made on the Palestinian cause,\u201d he warned.
\nAhmed Aboul-Gheit, the secretary-general of the pan-Arab organization, also warned that attempts to partition the Al-Aqsa Mosque and obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity \u201cwould fuel endless unrest and violence.\u201d
\nAbbas, the Palestinian president, said his administration would resort to the United Nations and its agencies and demand a resolution to protect the two-state solution to the conflict.
\n\u201cThe State of Palestine will continue going to international courts and organizations to protect our people\u2019s legitimate rights,\u201d he said.
\nThe ongoing bout of violence has put the region on edge. Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Egyptian, Israeli and Palestinian leaders and urged them to ease tensions.
\nIsrael is run by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s new far-right government. Many politicians in Netanyahu\u2019s administration oppose Palestinian independence.<\/p>\n
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CAIRO, 12 Feb: Dozens of leaders and senior officials from Arab and Islamic countries warned on Sunday Israeli actions in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank could worsen regional turmoil, as violence surges between Israel and the Palestinians. The meeting in Cairo was hosted by the Arab League and attended by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}