Algeria’s chairman has called for Arab concinnity to face raising “pressures and heads” as he opened the first Arab League peak since a string of normalisation deals with Israel divided the region.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune told the meeting’s initial session on Tuesday that “our central and primary cause remains the Palestinian cause”.
“The Palestinian question is the mama of all questions,” Tabboune said. He blasted Israel’s “aggression against Palestinians” and prompted concinnity of Palestinian political coalitions as “the only way out of the impasse.”
The Algerian chairman also advised that “exceptional global conditions are creating polarisation. which is impacting our food security”, without directly mentioning Russia’s irruption on Ukraine.
“The indigenous and transnational environment(is) marked by rising pressures and heads, particularly in the Arab world, which in its ultramodern history hasn’t seen a period as delicate as the one it’s presently witnessing,” he added.
The peak, the first since 2019, had been laid over multiple times due to the coronavirus epidemic.
In the meantime, several members of the 22-member bloc — for decades a forum for strident affirmations of support for the Palestinian cause have normalised ties with Israel.
The United Arab Emirates went first in a major US-intermediated deal establishing full ties with Israel.
That sparked an analogous accord with Bahrain, a provisional deal with Sudan, and an are-launch of ties with Morocco, helping revitalize the area’s decades-old contest with neighbouring Algeria.
2002 Arab action
Algiers remains a loyal supporter of Palestine, indeed interceding a conciliation between rival Palestinian coalitions in October.
The deal was seen as a public relations achievement for Tebboune as he seeks further indigenous leverage for Algeria on the reverse of its growing status as a gas exporter in a force-starved global request.
Tebboune didn’t directly mention the normalisation deals. But he claimed that a 2002 Arab action proposing peace in exchange for Israel’s pullout from land it enthralled during 1967 Six Day War was the only way to reach “a just and comprehensive peace”.
The two-day meeting coincides with choices in Israel that could return hawkish ex-premier Benjamin Netanyahu to power.
Addressing leaders including United Nations principal Antonio Guterres, Tebboune called for a UN General Assembly session to give full class to Palestine.
The Algiers peak is another occasion for Tebboune to push his docket forward, despite high-profile Arab leaders being absent.
“Algerian foreign policy has gone on the descent at the indigenous, African, and Arab situations,” said Geneva-grounded expert Hasni Abidi.
