Bouteflika: “The Situation In The Arab World Is Unfortunate And Unpleasant”

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika described the situation now prevailing in the Arab world as “unfortunate and unpleasant.” He referred to four burning issues that beset the region: the Palestinian issue, the crises in Libya, Syria and Yemen, and warned against the return of terrorists after their defeat in the Middle East.
Speaking at the opening of the Arab summit on Sunday in the Saudi city of Dhahran, President Bouteflika said in a speech read out on his behalf by the Speaker of the Council of the Nation, Mr. Abdelkader Bensaleh, “We are getting together at this summit while the Arab world is neither pleasing nor optimistic, even though we were determined in our previous Arab League meetings to do everything in our power to face up to the risks surrounding our countries, but the results achieved haven’t been in keeping with our hopes and aspirations”.
“We have not yet succeeded in reforming our common system and coming out with a unified strategic vision that inspires a spirit of joint Arab action in order to efficiently resolve our myriad political, security, economic and social issues, and to mobilize the energies to overcome the various challenges,” President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said in his speech.
“We must face up resolutely to challenges and overcome difficulties, especially those related to the sustained fight against blind terrorism, and to counter the nefarious extremist ideology, and the spread of terrorist organizations throughout the Arab homeland in order to fulfill the hopes of our peoples for sustainable development and economic and cultural integration”, he further stated.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika also referred to the Palestinian issue, which he described as central, and pinpointed to this effect “the wrongful attempts to undermine the Palestinian cause and the denial of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, foremost of which is their right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem or El Qods as their capital along the borders of 1967, while denouncing US President Trump’s unfair decision to transfer his country’s Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem”.
“The crisis in Libya remains a matter of constant concern, and we reiterate the call for intensified action to promote a peaceful and political solution to this crisis in order to achieve the security and stability of this neighboring and brotherly country, away from all foreign interference,” the Head of State underlined.
“We express our deep concern at the escalation in the situation in Syria and its adverse repercussions on the brotherly Syrian people and on the security and stability of the region as a whole. I want to reiterate the necessity to speed up a peaceful political solution to the Syrian conflict,” he said.
Concerning troubled Yemen, the Head of State stressed “the imperious need of turning the page of fighting and of adopting the course of dialogue so as to thrash out a viable political solution and to foster inter-Yemeni reconciliation as a basis for definitively settling this damaging crisis”.