Nigeria has joined Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Turkey, Palestine and Jordan other members of the Ministerial Committee inaugurated by the Joint Arab-Islamic Summit to urge the United Kingdom to reject selectivity in applying international laws.
Vanguard reported that the appeal was made on Tuesday to resolve the war in Gaza, as the members held an official meeting with the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom, David Cameron.
Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, was in attendance and a statement by his aide, Abdulkadir Alkasim, disclosed the objective of the meeting.
The members of the Ministerial Committee called on the international community to fulfil its obligation by opposing all forms of selectivity in applying international legal and moral standards on the issue of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
According to the statement, the committee urged the international community not to sit on the fence to the Israeli occupation forces against Palestinian civilians, and the trend of the occupation’s violations against the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
The meeting also focussed on the need to resuscitate the peace process in the Palestinian issue, as members stressed the importance of ensuring a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace, through the implementation of international laws related to the two-state solution.
It stated that this would enable the Palestinian people to obtain their legitimate rights to establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.
The members further discussed the need to secure safe passages to deliver humanitarian aid, food, water, fuel, and electricity to Gaza and allow international organisations to implement their tasks in the Gaza Strip and its surroundings.
“At the centre of this crisis is the disproportionality of the use of force. It does not add up for us to sit by while homes in Gaza are destroyed, thousands are killed, we have to give peace a chance and that is why Nigeria is involved. It is all about humanity,” the statement read.
The Ministerial Committee in charge of the Extraordinary Joint Arab-Islamic Summit is headed by His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The meeting was attended by the Members of the Ministerial Committee which included H.E. Mr. Ayman Al-Safadi, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; H.E. Mr. Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt; and H.E. Mr. Riyad Al-Maliki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine.
Others were H.E. Mr. Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Türkey; H.E. Ms. Retno Marsudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia; H.E. Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and H.E. Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.
