CAIRO, October 26. /TASS/: Nine Arab countries have called on the UN Security Council to oblige the parties to the Middle East conflict to immediately cease fire.
A joint statement adopted by the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia calls on the UN Security Council "to commit the parties to an immediate and durable ceasefire." The top diplomats pointed to the fact that the right of self-defense guaranteed by the UN Charter does not justify violations of international law, and that the failure to characterize what is happening as a flagrant violation of humanitarian law is tantamount to greenlighting this practice to continue.
The Arab countries "reject attacks on civilians, all acts of violence and terrorism against civilians," as well as the destruction of infrastructure, and condemn "the individual and collective forcible transfer [of Palestinians in Gaza] and the policy of collective punishment" that Israel is pursuing against the population of the Palestinian enclave.
The foreign ministers of the nine Arab countries also express "deep concern about the possibility of the current confrontation spreading to other regions of the Middle East and call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint." According to the statement, "the expansion of this conflict would have serious consequences both for the peoples of the region and for the security and stability of the world."
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.
