NEW YORK – “The ongoing events in Jerusalem and the Holy Mosque of Al-Aksa confirm that achieving peace continues to face hurdles and challenges that require us all to tackle by providing decisive final solutions,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said at the UN.
Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “empowering the Palestinian people to exercise their right to self-determination and to an independent state within the border of June 4, 1967, with east Jerusalem as its capital” will be the key solution to eliminating important factors contributing to the region’s instability,” he said in an address to the General Assembly late Monday.
“Perhaps you would agree with me that it is imperative to resolve this conflict without hesitation,” he added, “so that the nations of the region may focus on building their future together, in order to achieve prosperity and build a better future for the coming generation.”
The Egyptian leader spoke extensively about terrorism in his address, saying “counterterrorism efforts so far have relied solely on defensive reaction, focusing on defending the present.”
“In parallel to these valuable efforts, we must seek ways to channel the productive energy of our youth away from extremists and their false ideas, and to employ our youth’s capabilities in building the future that will soon be their own,” he added.
Sisi also emphasized his country’s role as the Middle East’s mediator, and he pointed out that Egypt called on the Syrian national parties to meet in Cairo to formulate a clear plan to stop the confrontations.
The general stressed that this initiative would provide “a common ground for all Syrians to build a democratic Syria with sovereignty over the entirety of its territory, in a way that would preserve the state and its institutions and respect and protect its diversity and national identity.”
He called on Syrian parties to contribute in all efforts to negotiate a political resolution.