CAIRO:
The Arab Parliament on Tuesday welcomed the outcomes of the Arab-Islamic summit in Saudi Arabia, considering it an important step to enhance Arab and Islamic solidarity and mobilize international efforts to stop the occupation’s aggression against the Palestinian people in addition to its aggression on the Lebanon Parliament. Speaker Mohammed Al-Yamahi said in a statement that the outcomes of this summit included emphasizing the main constants and principles on which the Arab and Islamic position on the Palestinian issue is based.
He affirmed the Arab Parliament’s support for all Arab, Islamic, and international efforts aimed at stopping the aggression on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, stressing the need for the UN Security Council to assume its legal, moral, and political responsibility and issue a binding and decisive resolution to immediately stop this aggression and facilitate the entry of humanitarian and medical aid. He praised the Riyadh summit’s call for the International Criminal Court to quickly hold accountable the perpetrators of genocide, enforced disappearance, mass graves, forced displacement, and other horrific war crimes and crimes against humanity.
He appreciated the summit’s call to mobilize international support for the State of Palestine to join the United Nations as a full member, stressing that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is the main key to achieving security and stability in the region. The Saudi capital, Riyadh, hosted the extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit with the participation of Representative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.
The summit’s final statement called on the UN Security Council to issue binding resolutions to stop the Zionist occupation’s aggression and ensure the protection of civilians in accordance with international law, stressing the centrality of the Palestinian cause and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to establish their independent state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Five killed in Lebanon
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s health ministry said a Zionist airstrike on Tuesday killed five people in the mountains east of Beirut, after a security official said a house sheltering displaced people was hit. “The Zionist enemy strike on Baalshmay killed five people,” the ministry said in an initial report. The security official, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the “(Zionist) strike targeted a house where displaced people lived, including women and children”.
On Tuesday morning, Zionists launched more than 10 airstrikes on south Beirut, state media said, shortly after the army warned people in several neighborhoods to evacuate the Hezbollah stronghold. Since September 23, Zionist entity has stepped up its aerial bombing campaign, mainly targeting Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon’s east and south and in southern Beirut. A week later, it sent ground troops into Lebanon. The escalation came after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges of fire, launched by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas following their October 7, 2023 attack. More than 3,240 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, the majority of them since late September. — Agencies
