Kuwait to support Palestine at UNSC: FM
KUWAIT/NEW YORK: The State of Kuwait will highlight the Palestinian cause during its tenure as a non-permanent member of UNSC, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah AlKhaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah said yesterday. Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled’s statement came during his participation at the regular session of the National Assembly.
The US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the step to move the American embassy to the holy city will be strongly protested, affirmed Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled. He indicated that the decision violated several UNSC resolutions on Palestine and it violated all international laws and norms.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled said that the decision, if implemented, would crush all hopes for peace in the Middle East and it will be a direct slap towards the Arab peace initiative. Kuwait stands in solidarity with the Palestinians and it will support all efforts to establish a Palestinian state. In regards to the US veto of a UNSC resolution condemning the Jerusalem decision late Monday, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled indicated that the resolution was a clear indication of the world’s disapproval of the American decision. He hoped that the US would reconsider the situation and back down from this unjust policy.
Global rejection
Parliament Speaker Marzouq AlGhanem had stated on Monday that the 14 UN Security Council members’ support of a draft resolution on Jerusalem, against a US veto, reflected ‘global rejection’ of the American unilateral decision over the occupied city.
The US vetoed an Egyptian-sponsored UN draft resolution rejecting US President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this month to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city. The vote by the UNSC members “sends a clear message over the international overwhelming consensus that rejected” any unilateral move that considered Jerusalem a capital of the Zionist entity, Ghanem said in a statement shortly after the vote.
Ghanem thanked Egypt for sponsoring the resolution, which he considered “an international referendum over the rejection of political manipulation of the status of (Jerusalem).” Ghanem, addressing an urgent meeting of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in Morocco few days ago, called for a united Arab action vis-avis the US move.
Kuwait regrets veto
Kuwait Ambassador to the UN Mansour Al-Otaibi expressed regret on Monday over the US veto of the UN draft resolution on Jerusalem, but said the US move was expected. The Egyptian-sponsored draft resolution was balanced and reaffirmed status of Jerusalem as listed in previous UN Security Council resolutions, Otaibi said following the vote.
The US veto is a “negative development that may promote more violence and tension, and abort chances of a permanent and just solution in the Middle East,” he added. The US bias to Israel, recognition of Jerusalem as capital of the Jewish state and transfer of the embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city are violating UN resolutions and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, he said. Otaibi said East Jerusalem was an occupied Palestinian land and the US decision would not have “any legal effect.”
The status of Jerusalem has been determined by many resolutions and the city is among the final status issues that should be resolved via negotiations,” he said. Otaibi said the Arab group to the UN would table a resolution to the UN General Assembly in few days to affirm status of Jerusalem. “It is our responsibility to continue to act in international arenas to rally support against the American decision and isolate it,” he said. — KUNA