UAE slams Israeli aggression

The UAE has strongly condemned the Israeli aggression on Gaza Strip and urged the international community to shoulder its responsibility towards the Palestinian people and to put an end to Israel’s messing up with regional and international peace and stability.

By (Wam)

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Published: Sat 17 Nov 2012, 9:59 AM

Last updated: Tue 7 Apr 2015, 12:10 PM

In a statement before the 39^th session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers in Djibouti, Assistant Foreign Minister for International Organisations Affairs Dr Saeed Mohammed Al Shamsi reiterated the UAE’s support to the Arab Peace Initiative as a realistic approach to solving the Palestinian issue, preserving the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to an independent state.

Upon directives from the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE follows with utmost concern the conditions people of Muslim countries are going through and shows keen interest in providing humanitarian and development aid, noted Al Shamsi, who leads the UAE’s delegation to the OIC conference.

Al Shamsi also announced the UAE’s donation of $2 million to OIC’s Islamic Solidarity Fund in support of its humanitarian noble mission.

He reaffirmed that “stability and security in the Gulf region is a top priority in the UAE’s balanced foreign policy whose principles call for peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, confidence building, maintenance of good neighbourly relations, non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs and the settlement of conflicts through peaceful means”.

“Based on these principles, the government of the UAE once again regrets the continued Iranian occupation of its islands, Abu Musa, and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs, and demands the restoration of the UAE’s full sovereignty over these islands. We also stress that all actions and measures taken by the Iranian occupation authorities are null and void, and are contrary to international law and to all norms and common human values. We urge Iran to respond to the repeated peaceful, sincere calls by the UAE for a just settlement of this issue, either through direct negotiations or by referral to the International Court of Justice to settle this dispute,” the UAE official said.

Speaking on the situation in Syria, he voiced regret over the continued bloodshed and violence by the Syrian regime which, he said has lost its legitimacy.

Urging the international community to take up its humanitarian and political responsibility towards Syria, the UAE official stressed that any solution to the crisis would only be possible through an organised transfer of power.

He also voiced the UAE’s support to the recently-created National Coalition of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people. Al Shamsi hoped that the new Syrian opposition body would receive international recognition and support to enable it achieve its legitimate aspirations.

Al Shamsi expressed the UAE’s great concern over the violence which targets the Rohingya Muslim minority group in Myanmar. He called the international community to urge and encourage the government of Myanmar to take measures to cease the infringement of the Rohingya’s rights, and put an end to acts which contradict the basic human rights declared by international conventions.