Leading the effort to shore up security in the region, Egypt hosted in September 2024 the Ministerial Council of the Arab League at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
Along with Arab states’ ministers of foreign affairs, several prominent international officials attended, including Turkiye’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, U.N. Commissioner-General of United Nations Relief, and U.N. Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag.
Mainly focused on the conflict in Gaza, topics included:
- Calling on parties in the Gaza conflict to exercise restraint, prevent escalation and engage in negotiation to end hostility.
- Discussing ways to prevent disastrous security and humanitarian repercussions resulting from potential conflict spillover effect in the region.
- Urging parties to abide by international law of human rights and refrain from further destabilizing security in the region.
- Urging parties to commit to the international humanitarian law that protects civilians from the effects of armed conflict.
- Calling for immediate release of all war prisoners and detainees and allowing the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Calling on the international community to intensify pressure on warring parties to cease hostility, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said: “A ceasefire is no longer an Arab demand, but a global one. It is a humanitarian and moral necessity and strategic goal to avert the spillover of the conflict into the region.”
By the start of 2025, many of the Arab League’s recommendations had started to become a reality,
with the de-escalation of the Gaza conflict.
Sources: Asharq Al-Awsat, Aljazeera.net