Arab League to Discuss Sunday ‘Abraham Accord’ Repercussions

Arab foreign ministers and delegation members attend the annual Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Arab foreign ministers and delegation members attend the annual Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Arab League to Discuss Sunday ‘Abraham Accord’ Repercussions

Arab foreign ministers and delegation members attend the annual Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
Arab foreign ministers and delegation members attend the annual Arab League meeting in Cairo, Egypt September 10, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

The 154th session of the Arab League Council at the permanent delegates level would discuss next Sunday the repercussions of the US-UAE-Israeli peace agreement, also known as "Abraham Accord", on the Palestinian cause.

The AL said that precautionary measures will be respected during the talks by limiting the participation to the state’s delegate accompanied by one member only.

Discussions will tackle several topics related to Palestine’s budget and resistance, in addition to the Israeli violations against Palestinian territories and its usurping of Arab waters.

Other topics on the agenda are the Iranian and Turkish intervention in international affairs of Arab countries, the security of navigation and energy supplies of Gulf states, the developments in Libya, Syria, and Yemen, in addition to showing solidarity with Lebanon.

In this context, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani received senior advisor to US President Donald Trump Jared Kushner Doha on Wednesday, according to the official QNA news agency.

During his meeting with Kushner, the Emir underlined Qatar's position, which calls for “a just settlement of the Palestinian cause based on international legitimacy resolutions, the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution” to provide security and stability in the region.

Doha supports a two-state solution, with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, to end the conflict with Israel, his cabinet said.

Kushner sought to convince Qatar to normalize ties with Israel, following a US-brokered peace agreement last month between the UAE and Israel.

The two sides discussed the close strategic bilateral ties and a number of issues of common concern as well as the peace process in the Middle East.

Sheikh Tamim told Kushner Qatar remains committed to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, in which Arab nations offered Israel normalized ties in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians and full Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war.



Syria Will Not Take Part in Meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, State TV Says

A member of the SDF in Deir Ezzor, Syria. (AFP file)
A member of the SDF in Deir Ezzor, Syria. (AFP file)
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Syria Will Not Take Part in Meetings with Kurdish-led SDF in Paris, State TV Says

A member of the SDF in Deir Ezzor, Syria. (AFP file)
A member of the SDF in Deir Ezzor, Syria. (AFP file)

Syria will not take part in planned meetings with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Paris, Syria's state news agency quoted a government source as saying on Saturday, casting doubt over an integration deal signed by the two sides in March. 

The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated the ISIS group in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq. 

In March, the SDF signed a deal with the new government in Damascus to join Syria's state institutions. 

The deal aims to stitch back together a country fractured by 14 years of war, paving the way for Kurdish-led forces that hold a quarter of Syria to merge with Damascus, along with regional Kurdish governing bodies. 

It did not specify how the SDF will be merged with Syria's armed forces, however. The SDF has previously said its forces must join as a bloc, while Damascus wants them to join as individuals.