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Saudi Arabia, Palestine Coordinate Efforts to Hold Urgent Arab Summit

The recent meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The recent meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia, Palestine Coordinate Efforts to Hold Urgent Arab Summit

The recent meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The recent meeting of Arab League Foreign Ministers in Cairo (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Palestine, continue their consultations in preparation for an emergency Arab summit to discuss efforts to stop the war in Gaza.

Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League Hossam Zaki told Asharq Al-Awsat that consultations are ongoing between Palestine, the Saudi leadership, and other countries.

On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab leaders to convene an emergency summit to stop Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Abbas said: "I call on Arab leaders to hold an emergency Arab summit to stop Israel's brutal aggression against the Palestinians, team up in countering international challenges, and go great lengths so that our people can stay on their land and end the occupation of our state, with Jerusalem as its capital."

The Assistant Secretary-General explained that there is Saudi-Palestinian coordination regarding the summit.

The League still needs to start the official preparations for the summit. However, Zaki believes that under the current circumstances, it would be difficult for two-thirds of the members not to agree to hold an emergency summit in Egypt or Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, spokesman for the Sec-Gen of the Arab League Jamal Rushdie indicated that consultations are now underway to determine a date and location of the summit.

Rushdie told Asharq Al-Awsat that the summit is expected to be held in Saudi Arabia.

In May, Saudi Arabia hosted the 32nd Regular Session of the Arab League Council at the Summit Level.

The upcoming summit, once held, is set to discuss ways to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the issue of hostages, and allowing sustainable entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip, according to Zaki.

The League held an emergency meeting at the level of foreign ministers on October 11 at its headquarters in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Gaza, which concluded with a call for urgent international action to stop the war.

The meeting condemned the targeting of civilians and warned against displacing Palestinian people.

Furthermore, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed the recent military escalations in Gaza with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan, and Jordan Ayman Safadi.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement that the two calls come within the framework of coordinating Arab efforts to deal with the unprecedented military escalation in the Strip, the ongoing attacks against Palestinians, and ways to implement an immediate humanitarian truce.

On Sunday, the Arab League Sec-Gen, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, met with Belgium's Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib in Cairo.

Aboul Gheit lauded Belgium's position on the Palestinian cause, including its vote on the UN General Assembly's Arab-drafted resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza.

He said the Belgian position reflects just principles, contrary to the double standards practiced by some countries.

Aboul Gheit strongly condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression and collective punishment pursued by the occupation forces. He said their practices amount to war crimes including bombing hospitals, completely cutting off communications aiming to isolate the enclave, and bombing innocent civilians, most of whom are children and women.

Both sides agreed on the need for the international community to carry out its tasks to rescue and protect civilians and implement international humanitarian law.

They affirmed their rejection of Israel's policy of transferring or forcibly displacing Gazans to neighboring countries.

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Arab World

Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
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Sudan War Destroys World's Only Research Center on Skin Disease Mycetoma

The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File
The Mycetoma Research Center in the southern Khartoum district of Soba, on August 5, 2013. ASHRAF SHAZLY / AFP/File

The world's only research center on mycetoma, a neglected tropical disease common among farmers, has been destroyed in Sudan's two-year war, its director and another expert say.

Mycetoma is caused by bacteria or fungus and usually enters the body through cuts. It is a progressively destructive infectious disease of the body tissue, affecting skin, muscle and even bone.

It is often characterized by swollen feet, but can also cause barnacle-like growths and club-like hands, AFP said.

"The center and all its infrastructure were destroyed during the war in Sudan," Ahmed Fahal, director of the Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), told AFP.

"We lost the entire contents of our biological banks, where there was data from more than 40 years," said Fahal, whose center had treated thousands of patients from Sudan and other countries.

"It's difficult to bear."

Since April 15, 2023, Sudan's army has been at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces throughout the northeast African country.

The MRC is located in the Khartoum area, which the army last month reclaimed from the RSF during a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million.

Sudan's health care system has been left at the "breaking point", according to the World Health Organization.

Among the conflict's casualties is now the MRC, established in 1991 under the auspices of the University of Khartoum. It was a rare story of medical success in impoverished Sudan.

A video provided by the global Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) shows collapsed ceilings, shelves overturned, fridges open and documents scattered about.

AFP was not able to independently verify the MRC's current condition.

The center had grown to include 50 researchers and treat 12,000 patients each year, Fahal said.

Mycetoma is listed as a neglected tropical disease by the WHO.

The organisms that cause mycetoma also occur in Sudan's neighbors, including Chad and Ethiopia, as well as in other tropical and sub-tropical areas, among them Mexico and Thailand, WHO says.

For herders, farmers and other workers depending on manual labor to survive, crippling mycetoma infections can be a life sentence.

Drawing on the MRC's expertise, in 2019 the WHO and Sudan's government convened the First International Training Workshop on Mycetoma, in Khartoum.

"Today, Sudan, which was at the forefront of awareness of mycetomas, has gone 100 percent backwards," said Dr. Borna Nyaoke-Anoke, DNDi's head of mycetoma.