Petra News Agency
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Foreign Minister Calls on
Security Council to adopt resolution to end Israeli aggression
New York, Jan. 7 (Petra)-- Amid a week of intensive diplomatic activity,
Jordan’s Foreign Minister Salaheddin Al Bashir met today, together with the Arab
Foreign Ministers, with the Foreign Ministers of the three Permanent members of
the UN Security Council (the United States, France and the United Kingdom) in
which the P3 presented a draft presidential statement of the UNSC addressing the
situation in Gaza.
Al Bashir said Jordan and the Arab states "did not accept" the statement and
pressed ahead for a UN Security Council resolution that enforces an immediate
ceasefire, enshrined in the Arab draft proposal presented to the UNSC, "to halt
the Israeli military operations in Gaza and end the collective punishment of the
Palestinian civilian population.
" Al Bashir also stressed the urgent need to address the humanitarian crisis in
the strip deploring Israel’s aggression that has killed more than 600
Palestinians.
Earlier today, Al Bashir and the Arab Foreign Ministers met with U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice at the U nited Nations headquarters in which he
continued to stress that there is no military solution to the conflict as have
previous experiences proven adding that such actions threaten efforts to reach a
peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the
two-state solution that ensures the creation of an independent Palestinian
state.
Al Bashir reiterated calls by His Majesty King Abdullah to the international
community to take action immediately after Israel’s military offensive ends in
order to press ahead with serious peace negotiations in order to achieve a
peaceful resolution of the conflict that leads to the establishment of an
independent Palestinian state and ensures security and stability across the
region.
Jordan “will continue to press for an immediate easefire at the international
body, to stop the fighting, prioritize the entry of humanitarian and medical
assistance into Gaza in order to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian
people and find an international monitoring mechanism to oversee the ceasefire
and ensures all parties’ adherence to it," stressed Al Bashir.
In his statement before the UN Security Council yesterday, Al Bashir welcomed
the Egyptian initiative, which he said, represents an “incentive” to end the
onslaught immediately.