Egypt Speaks on Behalf of 108 Countries at UN to Ensure Peacebuilding Financing

Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek delivers a joint cross-regional statement on peacebuilding financing at the UN General Assembly Meeting on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Egypt Foreign Ministry)
Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek delivers a joint cross-regional statement on peacebuilding financing at the UN General Assembly Meeting on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Egypt Foreign Ministry)
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Egypt Speaks on Behalf of 108 Countries at UN to Ensure Peacebuilding Financing

Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek delivers a joint cross-regional statement on peacebuilding financing at the UN General Assembly Meeting on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Egypt Foreign Ministry)
Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek delivers a joint cross-regional statement on peacebuilding financing at the UN General Assembly Meeting on Wednesday, April 27, 2022. (Egypt Foreign Ministry)

Egypt has delivered a joint cross-regional statement on behalf of 108 countries at the high-level UN General Assembly meeting to consider options for ensuring sustainable Peacebuilding Financing on Wednesday.

Egypt represented all countries of the African group and the European Union member states, as well as a number of Asian, North American, South American, and Caribbean countries.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement quoting its Permanent Representative to the UN Osama Abdelkhalek as underlining the importance of providing “adequate, sustainable and predictable funding to support peacebuilding activities in conflict-affected countries.”

He called for finding a comprehensive solution to the challenge of funding peacebuilding by exploring all available funding options, including the contributions of member states to the UN budget.

Abdelkhalek also called on Abdulla Shahid, president of the Assembly’s 76th session, to launch negotiations to adopt a resolution that addresses all options for peacebuilding funding.

He said that it was a first for a group of cross-regional countries to speak with one voice to support investment in peacebuilding financing and preventing conflicts by securing adequate funding in this regard.

Egypt, as the coordinator of the African Group in the UN concerning peacebuilding issues, delivered another statement on behalf of the group to express the aspirations of the African continent in the field of peacebuilding, especially that it hosts most of the peacebuilding efforts.

It also urged deepening partnership between the UN and the AU to build the required human and institutional capabilities in Africa and enable the continent to lead regional peacebuilding efforts.



Iraq’s FM: Israeli-Russian Hostage Tsurkov is Alive

Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
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Iraq’s FM: Israeli-Russian Hostage Tsurkov is Alive

Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP
Israeli-Russian Princeton researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov. AFP

Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov, who is being held hostage by an Iraqi militia, is alive and the Iraqi prime minister is working on her release, Iraqi foreign minister Fouad Hussein told Axios reporter Barak Ravid on Thursday.

Tsurkov, a 38-year-old student at Princeton University, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate. She had entered the country on her Russian passport.

The only sign she was alive has been a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her.

No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But Israel believes she is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia.