Kuwait supports Palestinians in their struggle for independence

EU, Arab League launch strategic dialogue

VIENNA/BRUSSELS: Kuwait on Tuesday reiterated its support to the Palestinian people’s struggle to get back their legitimate rights and to establish their own independent state on the pre-June 4th, 1967 borders. Speaking at a meeting of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, held at the UN premises in Vienna, First Secretary of Kuwait’s Embassy in Vienna Abdullah Al-Obaidi stressed that the Israeli occupation’s irresponsible practices are defying the international community and undermining the two-state solution. The Israeli practices against Palestinian people are increasing tension in the Middle East and keep the region in a state of war, he warned.

Obaidi cited as example the recent escalation in the Palestinian territories after the Israeli government’s decision to restrict Muslims access to Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslim world’s third holiest place of worship. He also recalled the devastating Israeli war on Gaza Strip in which over 2, 000 people were killed and nearly 10,000 injured in addition to complete and partial destructions of thousands of houses, institutions and infrastructure in the densely-populated territory.

Obaidi censured the international community inaction in face of the Israeli breaches to relevant international laws and resolutions. He underlined Kuwait’s full support to the Palestinian people in their struggle to restore their legitimate rights and to establish their own independent state on the pre-June 4th, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem being its capital.

Meanwhile, Arab League Representative Wael Al-Assad said that Israel’s expansion in settlement activities on usurped Palestinian land, efforts to Judaize the occupied Jerusalem and random detention of thousands of people are illegal activities in face of the UN laws. He pointed that desperate Palestinian people are in need of international forces to protect them against the Israeli abuses.

In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On that day, in 1947, the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine. The observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People also encouraged member states to continue to give the widest support and publicity to the observance of the Day of Solidarity.

Strategic dialogue

In other news, the Arab League and the European Union launched yesterday a political and strategic dialogue to deepen their cooperation in a number of related sectors. Kuwait’s permanent representative to the Arab League in Cairo, Ambassador Ahmad Abdul-Rahman Al-Bakr, told KUNA ahead of the meeting that the launch of the strategic dialogue was decided during the last EU-Arab League ministerial meeting.

Yesterday’s gathering was also the fourth meeting of the Arab League and the EUs political and security committee on the level of ambassadors. The strategic dialogue working areas include crisis management, humanitarian assistance, counter terrorism weapons of mass destruction and transnational organized crime.

Bakr noted that the meeting took place under unprecedented conditions through which the Arab region and Europe are facing linked with the scourge of terrorism. “This meeting is also a message to Europe from the Arab states to underline their cooperation in the fight against terrorism,” he said. Bakr noted that the two sides were set to discuss issues of mutual interest led by the Palestine question and the atrocities being committed by Israel against the Palestinians .