Arab league says peace requires end to Israeli “hostile practices”

The Arab League has warned that peaceful coexistence in the Middle East cannot be achieved without the establishment of a Palestinian state and an end to Israel’s “hostile practices.”

In a resolution submitted by Egypt and Saudi Arabia and adopted on September 4, the League said that “the failure to reach a just solution to the Palestinian cause and the hostile practices of the occupying power” remain major obstacles to “peaceful coexistence” in the region, Caliber.Az reports via Arab News. 

The resolution was issued during a broader meeting in Cairo where foreign ministers endorsed a “Joint Vision for Security and Cooperation in the Region.”

The meeting coincided with an intensification of Israeli military operations around Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban center, and followed remarks by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich calling for annexation of parts of the West Bank to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”

In the resolution, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the Arab bloc stated that lasting peace, cooperation, and coexistence in the Middle East are not possible while Israel continues to occupy Arab land or “issues implicit threats to occupy or annex further Arab lands.”

Egypt and Jordan have previously signed peace treaties with Israel, while the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020 under the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

The Arab League emphasised that any lasting settlement must be based on a two-state solution and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which offers full normalization of relations in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied in 1967.

Egypt added on September 5 that there was “no room for allowing any party to dominate the region or enforce unilateral security arrangements that compromise its security and stability.”

By Sabina Mammadli