Mr. Attaf: 'No to aborting a national project by stripping it of its bearers and removing a people from history'
Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs Mr. Ahmed Attaf underscored Tuesday in Cairo the need to uphold and respect the independence of the Palestinian decision, calling for rallying around the Palestinian people to support the stabilization of the ceasefire and the reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip after more than 15 months of genocidal Zionist aggression.
In a speech delivered during the extraordinary session of the Arab League Council at summit level devoted to the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mr. Attaf asserted that Algeria 'stresses the need to uphold and respect the independence of the Palestinian decision, especially in the face of the recent manifestation of an unbridled desire to marginalize the Palestinian voice and absent its role in the post-aggression arrangements on Gaza,' adding that these arrangements 'must strengthen, not weaken, the foundations of our cause and must clarify, not obscure, the landmarks on the road to establish an independent and sovereign Palestinian state,' underlined Mr. Attaf.
'Today, we are called upon to rally around our Palestinian brothers. They need our support to stabilize the ceasefire, they need our support to launch reconstruction efforts, and they need our support to rekindle the flame of a permanent, just and final solution through the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.'
'These are all priorities that require everyone's contribution and participation, each from his or her position, each with his or her capabilities, and each with what his or her circumstances allow,' he said. Algeria will only be an active party in this endeavor, as it continues to fulfill its Arab mandate in the UN Security Council.'
Algeria 'joins the voices of its Arab brothers to affirm its categorical rejection of the plans to displace Palestinians from their land, to denounce the desperate attempts to separate Gaza from the rest of the Palestinian territories, and to condemn all maneuvers to annex the West Bank and remove it from its authentic Palestinian bosom,' he said.
Mr. Attaf warned that the danger today 'is the danger of dispersing a people after attempting to exterminate them, exporting a people after confiscating their land, and aborting a national project by stripping it of its bearers.
In one expressive sentence, the danger today is the danger of removing a people from history, which is the Palestinian people, and preventing a state from entering the contemporary geopolitical space, which is the Palestinian state.'
The extraordinary Arab summit is meeting 'amid an unprecedented state of disorientation and disorientation against the backdrop of the accelerated disappearance of the pillars of the contemporary international relations system, which today is witnessing manifestations of inwardness, unilateralism and disregard for international law, as well as the imposition of the logic of force and hegemony,' the foreign minister said.
In this general context, 'the Palestinian people have faced various challenges, endured the most severe and harsh suffering, and made countless and indescribable sacrifices, but what is facing them today is far more serious and dangerous,' he said.
'Let our message be clear and purposeful, let our word be one and united, and let our ranks be united around our Palestinian brothers, their cause, our cause and the cause of all humanity,' concluded the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs.
President of the Republic Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune decided not to personally participate in the emergency Arab summit hosted by Egypt on Tuesday, March 04, to discuss the developments of the Palestinian issue, and assigned Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Attaf to represent Algeria.
'This decision came against the backdrop of the imbalances and shortcomings that marred the preparatory process for this summit, which was monopolized by a limited and narrow group of Arab countries that monopolized the preparation of the outcomes of the upcoming summit in Cairo without any coordination with other Arab countries concerned with the Palestinian issue,' the Algerian Press Agency (APS) said.
The source explained that 'the President of the Republic was saddened by this way of working, which is based on the inclusion of countries and the exclusion of others, as if the support of the Palestinian cause has become the exclusive monopoly of some.
While the logic of things was and still is to strengthen Arab unity and strengthen the rallying of all Arab countries around their central cause, the Palestinian cause, especially as it faces existential challenges that aim to strike at the heart of the Palestinian national project,' the source said.
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