Act now on Iran and Jerusalem dispute to save peace hopes, Saudi Arabia tells UN

Abdallah Al-Mouallimi

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has told the UN Security Council that any recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will only increase tension in the Middle East, weakening hopes of reaching a comprehensive and lasting two-state solution.
In the Kingdom’s speech on Thursday during an open debate on “the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question,” Riyadh’s ambassador to the UN, Abdallah Al-Mouallimi, also urged the UN to take a firm stance on Iran and show that the international community would not tolerate the terrorist practices destabilizing international and regional peace.
“It is also time to deal seriously with Hezbollah and detect its terrorist operations in Syria, Lebanon and other parts of the world,” he said.
Al-Mouallimi said that Jerusalem, “the flower of cities... should be an oasis of peace, coexistence and love. Jerusalem is the eternal historical capital for Palestine. It has been at the heart of deliberations of the Security Council over the past 50 years. We have recognized that all international conventions since the Oslo agreement in 1993 till present time affirmed that Jerusalem is one of the issues of the final comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
Previous resolutions of the UN had confirmed that all Israeli measures toward Jerusalem, including the eviction of Palestinian citizens, the building of settlements on its territory, and the declaration of the city as the capital of Israel, were “a violation of law, norms and morality,” he said.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms that any measure taken by the Israeli occupation in Jerusalem is void and ineffectual. Such actions fuel tension in the region and Middle East, undermine the peace process and weaken the opportunities of reaching a comprehensive, lasting and just solution based on the two-state solution and establishment of the Palestinian independent state based on borders of June 1967 with Jerusalem as its capital,” Al-Mouallimi said.
He warned that Iran continued to blatantly interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, spreading and supporting terrorism. Iran was the main supporter of the terrorist Hezbollah group and supported the Houthi rebels in Yemen, smuggling missiles that were targeted against Saudi Arabia. About 90 missiles had been launched against Saudi cities.
“All missiles launched on my country were proved in UN independent reports to be manufactured by Iran. These acts are clear and explicit violations of the Security Council resolutions,” Al-Mouallimi said.
Referring to the Syrian crisis, the ambassador said the situation was in a delicate phase and could be resolved only through a Syrian consensus that met the aspirations of the people.
He said Saudi Arabia has sought to unite the Syrian opposition and encourage it to speak with one voice. The Kingdom hosted the Second Riyadh Conference in November 2017, which succeeded in uniting opposition factions and providing unified leadership.
Al-Mouallimi said the suffering in Syria would continue while the country’s ruling regime, backed by Iran’s military and Hezbollah terrorist forces, worked to destroy the Syrian people.
He ended his speech with a call for immediate humanitarian aid to people throughout Syria, regardless of their ethnic, religious, sectarian or political affiliations, and repeated the Kingdom’s calls for the quick release of detainees and abductees, as well as the return of displaced people and refugees to their homes.