Mauritanian president arrives in Madinah
Ghazouani was received at Prince Mohammed bin Abdulaziz International Airport by Abdul Mohsen bin Nayef bin Hamid, undersecretary of Madinah; the director of the Royal Protocol Office in the region Ibrahim bin Abdullah Barri; and a number of other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Al-Malki met Mohamed Ali Randhawa, the chairman of Pakistan's Capital Development Authority in Islamabad on Saturday. They discussed issues of common interest, according to a post made by the ambassador on X.
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Arab News
38 minutes ago
- Arab News
Pakistan hopes for ‘meaningful outcomes' ahead of high-level UN summit on Palestine today
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has expressed the hope for achieving 'meaningful outcomes' ahead of a high-level United Nations summit on Palestine scheduled to convene today, Monday, at New York. The event — officially titled the High-Level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution — will be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France from July 28-29. The conference arrives amid worsening humanitarian conditions in Gaza and a historic diplomatic shift: France's decision to formally recognize Palestine as a state. Israel's war on Gaza has killed over 57,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023. The conference takes place a day after Israel declared a 'tactical pause' in fighting in parts of Gaza on Sunday and said it would allow the UN and aid agencies to open secure land routes to tackle a deepening hunger crisis. Dar spoke to Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Sunday to discuss the 'grave' humanitarian situation in Gaza impacting millions of Palestinians, Pakistan's foreign office said on Sunday. 'He expressed the hope of achieving meaningful outcomes from the high-level international conference on Palestine and implementation of the two-state solution scheduled to be held in New York tomorrow,' the foreign office said. The two diplomats also exchanged views about a 'high-level visit' to Pakistan in the near future, the statement said without elaborating further. One of the most consequential developments ahead of the conference is French President Emmanuel Macron's July 24 announcement that France will formally recognize Palestine, with the official declaration to be made at the UN General Assembly in September. Analysts say France's move could tip the balance internationally. Already, 147 of 193 UN member states — nearly 75 percent — recognize Palestine, including nearly all of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. France would be the first G7 country to join that group. The US, Canada, Australia, Germany, and the UK still do not, citing the need for direct negotiations with Israel. The conference will convene foreign ministers and diplomats from dozens of countries and will build upon the work of eight working groups, each focusing on areas such as security, humanitarian aid, and post-war reconstruction. A follow-up summit is planned in September at the UN General Assembly, to be co-chaired by President Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Al Arabiya
38 minutes ago
- Al Arabiya
UN says will try to help all starving people in Gaza after Israel allows aid in
The United Nations said it would try to reach as many starving people as possible in Gaza after Israel announced it would establish secure land routes for humanitarian convoys. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it had enough food in, or on its way to, the region to feed the 2.1 million people in the Gaza Strip for almost three months. UN emergency relief coordinator Tom Fletcher said the United Nations would try to reach 'as many starving people as we can' in the time window. Israel on Sunday began a limited 'tactical pause' in military operations to allow the UN and aid agencies to tackle the deepening hunger crisis. 'We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys,' Fletcher said in a statement. Fletcher said some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased on Sunday, citing initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads of aid were collected. 'But we need sustained action, and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza; multiple trips per day to the crossings so we and our partners can pick up the cargo; safe routes that avoid crowded areas; and no more attacks on people gathering for food.' The UN aid chief said the world was calling out for life-saving humanitarian assistance to get through -- but stressed that 'vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis.' 'Ultimately of course we don't just need a pause -- we need a permanent ceasefire,' he added. No shootings near convoys pledge WFP said the pauses and corridors should allow emergency food to be safely delivered. 'Food aid is the only real way for most people inside Gaza to eat,' it said in a statement. It said a third of the population had not been eating for days, and 470,000 people in Gaza 'are enduring famine-like conditions' that were leading to deaths. WFP said more than 62,000 tons of food assistance was needed monthly to cover the entire Gaza population of two million. The agency noted that, on top of Sunday's 'pause' announcement, Israel had pledged to allow more trucks to enter Gaza with quicker clearances along with 'assurances of no armed forces or shootings near convoys.' 'Together, we hope these measures will allow for a surge in urgently needed food assistance to reach hungry people without further delays,' it said. 'Dystopian landscape' UN rights chief Volker Turk said Israel, as the occupying power in Gaza, was obliged to ensure sufficient food was provided to the population. 'Children are starving and dying in front of our eyes. Gaza is a dystopian landscape of deadly attacks and total destruction,' he said in a statement. He criticised a US- and Israel-backed outfit, called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), that in late May began distributing foodstuffs when UN-organized efforts were blocked. Turk said the GHF's 'chaotic, militarized distribution sites were 'failing utterly to deliver humanitarian aid at the scope and scale needed.' His office says Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid in Gaza since the GHF started operations -- nearly three-quarters of them in the vicinity of GHF sites.
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
The UN, the Palestinians, Israel and a stalled two-state solution
UNITED NATIONS: Ever since the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states in 1947, the United Nations has been inextricably linked to the fate of Palestinians, with the organization meeting this week hoping to revive the two-state solution. Here is a timeline on the issue: In November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181 dividing Palestine — which was then under British mandate — into Jewish and Arab states, with a special international zone for Jerusalem. Zionist leaders accepted the resolution, but it was opposed by Arab states and the Palestinians. Israel declared independence in May 1948, triggering the Arab-Israeli war which was won convincingly by Israel the following year. Around 760,000 Palestinians fled their homes or were expelled — an event known as the 'Nakba,' Arabic for 'catastrophe,' which the United Nations only officially commemorated for the first time in May 2023. In the aftermath of the Six-Day War of 1967, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which called for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied during the conflict, including the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. But linguistic ambiguities between the English and French versions of the resolutions complicated matters, making the scope of the required withdrawal unclear. In November 1974, Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), gave his first speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, saying he carried both 'an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun.' Days later, the UN General Assembly recognized the Palestinians' right to self-determination and independence. It granted UN observer status to the PLO as a representative of the Palestinian people. One of the strongest peace initiatives did not come from the United Nations. In 1993, Israel and the PLO — which in 1988 unilaterally declared an independent State of Palestine — wrapped up months of secret negotiations in Norway's capital Oslo. The two sides signed a 'declaration of principles' on Palestinian autonomy and, in 1994, Arafat returned to the Palestinian territories after a long exile and formed the Palestinian Authority, the governing body for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. UN Security Council decisions on how to treat the Palestinians have always depended on the position of the veto-wielding United States. Since 1972, Washington has used its veto more than 30 times to protect its close ally Israel. But sometimes, it allows key resolutions to advance. In March 2002, the Security Council — at Washington's initiative — adopted Resolution 1397, the first to mention a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, with secure and recognized borders. In December 2016, for the first time since 1979, the Council called on Israel to stop building settlements in the Palestinian territories — a measure that went through thanks to a US abstention, just before the end of Barack Obama's White House term. And in March 2024, another US abstention — under pressure from the international community — allowed the Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire amid Israel's offensive on Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militants' October 7 attack. That measure came after the United States blocked three similar drafts. In 2011, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas initiated the process of requesting membership of the State of Palestine to the UN, which required a positive recommendation from the Security Council, followed by a favorable vote from the General Assembly. In the face of opposition from the United States, the process was halted even before a vote in the Council. The following year, the General Assembly granted the Palestinians a lower status as a 'non-member observer State.' In April 2024, the Palestinians renewed their request to become a full-fledged member state, but the United States vetoed it. If the Palestinian request had cleared the Security Council hurdle, it would have had every chance of being approved by the necessary two-thirds majority in the Assembly. According to an AFP database, at least 142 of the 193 UN member states unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state. In the absence of full membership, the Assembly granted the Palestinians new rights in 2024, seating them in alphabetical order of states, and allowing to submit resolution proposals themselves for the first time.
