NEW YORK, November 30, 2017 (WAFA) - Manal Radwan, Saudi Arabia‘s delegate at the United Nations, pledged on Thursday during a United Nations General Assembly meeting on the situation in the Near East and on the “question of Palestine” that her country will continue to support the Palestinian people in their cause for self-determination and statehood.
Radwan reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s support “for the Palestinian people in their historic struggle for the realization of their inalienable rights, foremost of which is the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and fully sovereign Palestinian State on all the Palestinian land occupied since 1967.”
She condemned Israel, the occupying power, for its violations against the Palestinians people, including the killing of innocent civilians, illegal settlement construction and expansion, the theft of Palestinian land and the demolition of thousands of homes since the Palestinian exodus (Nakba) in 1948.
Radwan blamed Israel for “committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the people of Palestine… in full disregard of all the demands of the international community [on Israel] to stop these grave violations and adhere to international resolutions.”
“Saudi Arabia calls for the Palestinian cause and its legal, political and humanitarian entitlements, including the catastrophic consequences and effects caused by the Israeli aggression, to be the foremost concern of the international community, with a view to the immediate implementation of all UN resolutions in this regard,” Radwan told the UN meeting.
She added, “We [call] for providing immediate international protection to the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and to enable the Palestinian people to live in dignity, freedom and peace in their country of origin.”
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia affirms the Islamic, Arab and Palestinian identity of occupied Jerusalem, and that East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Its annexation by Israel - the occupying power - is illegal, unrecognized and is condemned by the international community,” Radwan remarked.
She concluded, “The road to peace is clear and well known: the establishment of an effective international mechanism to ensure an end to the Israeli occupation under a specific time frame, and the creation of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital based on the borders of 4 June 1967, and the liberation of all occupied Arab territories, including the occupied Syrian Arab Golan.”
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