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Tunis Declaration Counts on Arab Solidarity Against Interventions

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a meeting with Tunisia's Prime Minister Youssef Chahed
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a meeting with Tunisia's Prime Minister Youssef Chahed
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Tunis Declaration Counts on Arab Solidarity Against Interventions

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a meeting with Tunisia's Prime Minister Youssef Chahed
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz during a meeting with Tunisia's Prime Minister Youssef Chahed

The 30th Arab League Summit, slated for Sunday in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, will be under the title "Summit of Unification of Vision and Speech", with the need to address the US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan occupied territory figuring high on the meeting’s agenda.

Other Arab world hot topics, such as Syria, the Iranian expansionist agenda, and Turkish interventions in Iraq will also be tackled. Tunisia, which takes over this year from Saudi Arabia in hosting the summit, will coordinate with the leaders of 12 Arab countries in responding to some of the most pressing challenges facing the Arab world today.

Among the attending leaders are Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, in addition to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Arab leaders will also seek to ratify the draft "Tunis Declaration", presented to them by the Arab foreign ministers, which reaffirms the importance of promoting joint Arab action.

At their preparatory meeting earlier on Friday, Arab foreign ministers approved draft resolutions prepared by permanent delegates and senior officials, together with decisions of the Economic and Social Council, which will be presented in the Arab League meeting tomorrow at the Summit Level.

The draft resolutions contain about 21 items, which focus on the latest political developments of the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict, activating the Arab peace initiative and developments in the Syrian crisis, the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, the situation in Libya, Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon.

The draft resolutions dealt with supporting the Arab ecosystem to counter terrorism and developing the League of Arab States—it is worth noting that draft resolutions were referred from the preparatory Economic and Social Council for the 30th Arab Summit.

The Arab League Summit will stress the importance of a comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East as a strategy embodied by the Arab peace initiative, which was adopted by all Arab countries at the Beirut summit in 2002.

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Arab World

Israeli War Planes Pound Beirut Suburb, Hezbollah Strikes Back

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
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Israeli War Planes Pound Beirut Suburb, Hezbollah Strikes Back

Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)
Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike on the southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP)

The Israeli military pounded Beirut's southern suburbs with airstrikes on Tuesday, mounting one of its heaviest daytime attacks yet on the Hezbollah-controlled area after the defense minister ruled out a ceasefire until Israeli goals were met.

Smoke billowed over Beirut as around a dozen strikes hit the southern suburbs from mid-morning. After posting warnings to civilians on social media, the Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah targets in the Dahiyeh area of southern Beirut, including command centers and weapons production sites.

It said it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians and repeated its standing accusation that Hezbollah deliberately embeds itself into civilian areas to use residents as human shields, a charge Hezbollah rejects.

In northern Israel, two people were killed in the city of Nahariya when a residential building was hit by a missile, Israeli police said.

Israelis were forced to take shelter across the north as attack drones were launched from Lebanon, the military said. One hit the yard of a kindergarten in a Haifa suburb, where the children had been rushed into a shelter, rescue workers said. None were hurt.

An Israeli strike back across the border killed five people in the Lebanese village of Baalchmay southeast of Beirut, and five more were killed in a strike on the town of Tefahta in the south, Lebanon's health ministry said. Another person was killed in a strike in Hermel in the northeast, it said.

Beirut residents have largely fled the southern suburbs since Israel began bombing it in September. Footage of one strike shared on social media showed two missiles slamming into a building of around 10 storeys, demolishing it and sending up clouds of debris.

Ignited by the Gaza war, the conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah had been rumbling on for a year before Israel went on the offensive in September, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.

Israel has dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, killing many of its leaders including Hassan Nasrallah, flattening large areas of the southern suburbs, destroying border villages in the south, and striking more widely across Lebanon.

Since hostilities erupted a year ago, Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,287 people in Lebanon, the majority in the last seven weeks, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Its figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Hezbollah attacks have killed about 100 civilians and soldiers in northern Israel, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon over the last year.

WAR GOALS

Israel's new defense minister Israel Katz said on Monday there would be no ceasefire in Lebanon until Israel achieves its goals.

"Israel will not agree to any arrangement that does not guarantee Israel's right to enforce and prevent terrorism on its own, and meet the goals of the war in Lebanon - disarming Hezbollah and its withdrawal beyond the Litani River and returning the residents of the north safely to their homes," he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar had said earlier on Monday there had been "a certain progress" in ceasefire talks but the main challenge facing any ceasefire deal would be enforcement.

The Lebanese government, which includes Hezbollah, has repeatedly called for a ceasefire based on the full implementation of a UN resolution that ended a war between the group and Israel in 2006.

The resolution calls for the area south of the Litani to be free of all weapons other than those of the Lebanese state. Lebanon and Israel have accused each other of violating the resolution.

Israel's offensive has driven more than 1 million people from their homes in Lebanon, causing a humanitarian crisis.

Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel has forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate the area over the last year.