Libya on Tuesday refused to assume the presidency of the current session of the Arab League after Palestine resigned the position in protest at the organization’s failure to take a stand against the UAE-Bahrain normalization deals with Israel.
Qatar also rejected the Arab League presidency towards the end of last month.
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A spokesman for the Libyan Government of National Accord’s foreign ministry, Mohammed Al-Qablawi, said that the country had informed the Arab League of its decision.
Al-Qablawi added that Libya was looking forward to assuming the presidency of the Arab League “under better circumstances” and that the country “reserved the right to chair the Arab League”, Al-Jazeera Arabic reported.
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The Palestinians assumed the rotating presidency of the Arab League last month and were due to stay in that role until next March.
However, after Arab League foreign ministers refused to condemn the UAE and Bahrain normalization deals with Israel, or even agree to a resolution affirming support for Palestinian rights, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki announced Palestine’s resignation from the Arab League Presidency on September 22.
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Al-Maliki said that the organization had shown “a regression in values and principles”. The UAE and Bahrain normalization deals with Israel represent a major break with the Arab League’s 2002 Peace Initiative, which offers Israel normal relations only in return for a full withdrawal from occupied Palestinian territory.
The Palestinians have condemned the normalization deals as a “betrayal”, saying that they allow Israel to continue to occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem and besiege the Gaza Strip.
(Al-Raby Al-Jadeed, PC, Social Media)
