LONDON: A delegation of Arab and Turkish foreign ministers on Saturday reiterated the importance of an immediate ceasefire to return security and stability to the Gaza Strip during a visit to the Canadian capital.
The delegation, headed by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin
Farhan, was received by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in
Ottawa, before beginning an official round of talks with Foreign
Minister Melanie Joly, the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry said.
The talks were also attended by Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki and Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.
🎥| Arab Islamic Ministerial Committee Delegation, Led by Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan , Arrives in #Canada #EKHNews_EN
— AlEkhbariya News (@EKHNews_EN) December 9, 2023
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The officials discussed developments in Gaza and their repercussions, as well as Israel’s military escalation against Palestinian civilians, the ministry said in a statement.
The delegation urged the international community to quickly assume its
responsibility to protect civilians, adding that discussions around
Gaza’s future and the Palestinian issue “must come after an immediate
ceasefire and a calming of the unjustified military escalation.”
The delegation stressed the importance of taking serious steps to ensure
the securing of relief corridors for the delivery of urgent
humanitarian, food and medical aid to Gaza.
It also stressed the importance of creating political conditions for the
establishment of a Palestinian state, and rejected discussing Gaza’s
future separately from the wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The ministers said they were dissatisfied with the blocking of a UN
Security Council calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and
expressed their concern about the expanding scope of blatant attacks
carried out by Israeli forces against civilians, and the repeated
violations of international law.
The delegation — made up of officials from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Turkiye and the Palestinian Authority — on Friday met with US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken after Washington vetoed the
resolution.
Health officials in the besieged enclave on Saturday said the death toll
had surpassed 17,700, with 70 percent of the dead being women and
children, while more than 46,000 had been wounded.
The majority of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million have been forced to flee their homes.
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