UAE support for Palestine… Continuous Emirati efforts on various political and diplomatic levels
The United Arab Emirates continues its efforts to support the Palestinian cause at the political, diplomatic and humanitarian levels. It continues to act in the Security Council, which is not the first of its kind, but with the accelerated events at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the UAE side in the Security Council moved with great and continuous efforts.
The UAE, in partnership with China, has called for a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss the worrisome recent developments in the Palestinian territories.
Al-Aqsa Mosque clashes
Palestine witnessed accelerating and escalating events in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque two days ago, where Israeli occupation forces stormed, Wednesday morning, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israeli police forces fired sound bombs, in addition to assaulting the Jerusalemites inside the mosque, resulting in casualties.
This comes after the Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque at dawn today, brutally assaulted the mourners inside it, including women and children. Occupation forces arrested about 400 Palestinian youth from inside Al-Aqsa Mosque during the dawn raid. Israeli forces are carrying out incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque during Passover, which coincides with the holy month of Ramadan.
A strongly worded official statement
The UAE strongly condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation police forces and the attack on worshipers and the arrest of a number of them, calling on the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide full protection to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to stop the serious and provocative violations in it.
The UAE Foreign Ministry said that worshippers do not barricade themselves inside the mosque or tamper with weapons and explosives inside houses of worship, stressing the importance of respecting Jordan’s role in protecting sacred shrines and endowments in accordance with international law and the historical status quo, and not compromising the authority of the Quds Endowments Department and Al-Aqsa Mosque affairs, according to WAM.
The UAE Foreign Ministry called on the Israeli authorities to stop the escalation and not to take steps that would exacerbate tension and instability in the region, stressing the UAE’s rejection of all practices that violate international legitimacy resolutions and that threaten further escalation.
The UAE Foreign Ministry stressed the importance of supporting all regional and international efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East, as well as putting an end to illegal practices that threaten the achievement of a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Holy al-Aqsa Mosque storming begins
The skirmishes began after Palestinians completed the Taraweeh prayers inside the holy Al-Aqsa mosque. The number of worshipers reached 80,000. Many of the mourners remain inside the mosque without ever leaving.
UAE and efforts to support the Palestinian cause in the Security Council
The United Arab Emirates seeks to strengthen relations with Israel in the interest of the development and prosperity of the two countries and the entire Arab region. However, the United Arab Emirates’s action in the United Nations Security Council, as a non-permanent member of the Council, has managed more than once to achieve victory for the Palestinian cause. Beginning with its adoption of a presidential statement opposing the unilateral measures that obstruct the peace process in the Palestinian territories and affirming its commitment to a two-State solution, the United Arab Emirates, as an elected member of the Security Council, has facilitated this important decision with the support of all members of the Council.
The UAE’s efforts and statements are also clear, culminating in the issuance of the first UN Security Council resolution on the settlement issue in more than six years, and a strong UAE call underscoring the importance of the international community’s commitment to the vision of an independent Palestine living side by side with Israel in peace and rejecting any Israeli actions that obstruct a two-state solution.
On 5 January, the UAE strongly condemned the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by an Israeli minister under the protection of Israeli forces, considering that such provocative acts show a lack of commitment to the historical and legal status quo in the holy sites in Jerusalem.
It stressed the importance of reactivating regional and international efforts to push forward the peace process in the Middle East to ensure the achievement of a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with Israel in peace, security and mutual recognition.
