Where Does The Arab Neighbours Of Israel Stand On Its War Against Palestine (image@ motaz azaiza)
Israel’s war on Palestine has become an absolute cataclysm and the situation does not appear to go up anytime soon, but rather, is accelerating down the threshold of every humanitarian cause.
While world leaders, including the Arabs are at the receiving end of global accusations on their failure to end the genocide on the civilians of Gaza, and provide ample humanitarian aids that are desperately needed in the war field instead of letting Israel percolate the aids, here is a peek into what countries that share immediate border with the conflicted land has been doing.
Egypt is the only country that shares border with Gaza Strip. The country has been very vocal about the issues including Egyptian leader Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. Ever since the war has erupted, the country has been constantly in contact with several other countries pushing for ceasefire and providing humanitarian aids for the distressed civilians.
In one of the latest statements issued by the country’s Foreign Ministry, Egypt “stresses the need for the security council to assume its responsibility to ensure the immediate and accurate implementation of the provisions of this resolution, in order to preserve the credibility of the Security Council and its members in maintaining security and stability, and to respect the rules of the international law”.
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) November 16, 2023
Egypt shares Rafah border, the only crossing to the besieged Gaza enclave, through which the much-needed humanitarian aids can be provided. The country claims that the border has been open and “has not been closed at any stage since crisis eruption”. It is also added that it was “Israel’s procedure on the Crossing’s other side hinder and delay aid deliver”.
✔️Rafah Crossing is open & has not been closed at any stage since crisis eruption.
✔️Unacceptable to outbid 🇪🇬 longstanding positions supporting Palestinian rights and showing solidarity with 🇵🇸
✔️Israel’s procedures on the Crossing’s other side hinder & delay aid delivery. pic.twitter.com/9i0Ftsa8hk
— Egypt MFA Spokesperson (@MfaEgypt) November 13, 2023
Jordan, like all the other Arab countries, has condemned Netanyahu’s indiscriminate bombing on the Gaza Strip. The country was outraged at the amount of brutality unleashed upon the innocent civilians of Palestine and declared their refusal to sign the “prosperity deal” with Israel.
DPM & FM @AymanHsafadi in an interview with @samanthaTVnews on @BBCNews:
– Does anybody believe that with the amount of anger and outrage Israel is creating we can engage in any economic projects? We will not sign the “prosperity deal.”
– Israel is killing innocent Palestinians… pic.twitter.com/n2M6xrQUeS— وزارة الخارجية وشؤون المغتربين الأردنية (@ForeignMinistry) November 16, 2023
In the latest update, Jordan has said that it won’t sign up a deal that was meant to provide energy to Israel in exchange of water. The agreement was actually planned to be ratified last month, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Ayman Safadi, Foreign Minister of Jordan said to Al Jazeera that the regional dialogues about the regional projects “will not proceed”. The Jordanian diplomat said, “we will not sign this agreement any longer. Can you imagine a Jordanian minister sitting next to an Israeli minister to sign a water and electricity agreement, all while Israel continues to kill children in Gaza?”.
Jordan has been exerting efforts to bring the leaders together to call an end to the “retaliatory barbarism carried out by Israel”.
Syria is considered as a “passive actor” in the current war. According to Joseph Daher, an expert on Syria and a professor at European University Institute remarks Syria government as a “very weak…passive actor” without much of military power of its own.
Internal issues in the country is strongly against their President Bashar Assad, who was accused of carrying out “institutionalized” torture against his own people. Canada and Netherland filed case against Syria in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Celine Kassem, communication officer working for the Washington-based Force and an activist told DW, “Assad’s speech at the meetings in Riyadh about the situation in Gaza might win a prize for the world’s most hypocritical moment”.
Mr. Assad has participated in the special summit of the Arab leaders held at Riyadh. While delivering speech in the summit, the Syrian leader who was often described as “dictator” criticized the agreement of normalization between Israel and other Middle East countries.
Syria has signed the resolution put forward during the special summit of the Arab leaders calling for an immediate ceasefire and urging the International Criminal Court to probe into “war crimes against humanity that Israel is committing”. Apart from signing the resolution, Syria do not really play a notable role in the current war.
Lebanon have its interest tilted towards the cause of Palestinians and has been calling for ceasefire. But the country is trading on eggshell with the fear of being prey to the “battleground for proxy wars” that was fought by foreign countries. The country fears that fighting between Iran backed militant group Hezbollah and Israel could slip out of control. Recently, Israel and Hezbollah launched attacks and the strikes seemed to gain intensity as days passes. The attacks were mainly targeted at military outposts.
Due to the fear of the spread of war into their territory, as the country is not in a position to bear another war, Lebanon is in a state of “political paralysis”. Najib Mikati, Lebanon’s political caretaker told AFP that “Lebanese have had enough wars” and he is working to avoid the possible conflagration. He warned that “chaos could engulf the entire Middle East”.
