An Arab union will achieve the desired power of the Arabs: President Saleh

SURT, March 28 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that the future of joint Arab work is with its improvement so that the Arab countries benefit from their potentials as the 22nd Arab summit kicked off on Saturday in the Libyan Surt city. In a speech to the Arab summit, the President addressed the efforts made by Yemen to put forward views and initiatives which aim at enhancing the joint Arab work within Arab efforts and initiatives presented to the Secretariat of the Arab League. ‘’In the framework of its initiatives that aim at activating the joint Arab work, Yemen had presented a mechanism for the regular periodic convening of the Arab Summit, which has been adopted in Egypt. The mechanism was to serve the joint Arab work’’, said Saleh, pointing out that Yemen had also submitted a draft mechanism to create an Arab Parliament Union which has been based on an equal membership of all Arab countries. “Yemen now presents an initiative to activate the Arab action through the establishment of a union of Arab countries, which was adopted by the Arab Parliamentary Union and its a draft resolution was submitted to this summit”, Saleh highlighted. “W e live in the era of large political, economic, cultural, security and military conglomerates and if the European and African peoples have had strong unions despite the variations in language or history among them, the peoples of the Arab nation have a lot of similarities and strong links of the religion, language, history and common aspirations. So the establishment of an Arab Union will achieve strength desired by the Arabs and ensure the development of the joint Arab work”, President Saleh explained. He affirmed that the establishment of the Arab Union would strengthen the abilities of the Arab nation against challenges and risks, including the Israeli arrogance. ‘’The Arab countries had made many concessions but Israel always proves its arrogance through unilateral steps including its belief in using force to deal with the issues. The Israeli arrogance and refusal to all peace efforts are driving us to a deadlock’’, said President Saleh. ‘’The attempts to judize al-Quds and offending the holy places in Palestine, expanding settlements and the violence against the people in the country including destroying homes, arrests and blockade….all these besides other Israeli terrorist acts can’t take a right and ensure peace. However, what the Jewish state is acting is deepening and exploding the situation’’. ‘’We believe that the options of the Arab world are beginning to narrow due to the noncompliance by Israel to the international community’s desire for peace in the region. We are compelled to seek options for retrieving the Arab territory and liberating the Palestinian people from injustice and tyranny so that they can establish their independent state and defend the holy places, primarily the Al-Aqsa Mosque’’, he said. The President stressed that the Arabs have common components and denominators, which lead to their unity. “Our unity will ensure we can face all challenges”, said Saleh, pointing to the economic, political, security and defense successes of the European Union and the African Union. in his address, the president also touched to the local developments saying “you know the developments that took place in Yemen during the last three years, particularly the armed confrontations that took place in the last seven months in Saada against the rebels and elements of subversion”, indicating that the rebels were trying to restore imamate rule and serving external agenda. “There is no doubt that you are monitoring media reports on the so-called southern movement in some districts of southern and eastern provinces. There is strong amplification through the media of the events carried out by those pro-separation elements. I want to assure all Arabs that the situation in Yemen is stable. We have stopped the war In Saada and that there are talks with our brothers in some districts of the southern and eastern provinces to address the effects and remnants of the 1994 war and the colonial heritage”, The President made it clear. Concluding his speech to the Surt summit, Saleh thanked Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Qaddafi for good arrangements for the Arab summit and the efforts of the previous head of the Arab summit, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The President also expressed appreciation to the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa for his sincere efforts in the service of the joint Arab work. Saba