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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sima Bahouth said that the Arab summit held last month in Jordan had sent a message of peace that underlined that the Aras wanted progress towards resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

She said the Arab countries opted for a solution in line with the Arab Peace Initiative, which was adopted at the 2002 Arab summit in Beirut and backed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

Bahouth was delivering a speech at a UN Security Council session on the Middle East and the Palestinian issue on behalf of the Arab group, as Jordan is the current President of the Arab Summit.

The Arab peace plan, the envoy pointed out, is still the most comprehensive and potent formula to achieve a historic reconciliation based on an Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian and Arab lands to the June 4, 1967, lines, and guarantee that all final status issues will be addressed as it provides acceptance and peace for Israel from all it Arab neighbours.

She said the summit's peace message is a further indication that Arabs had adopted comprehensive and permanent peace as a strategic choice, which requires reciprocation and a real desire for peace on the part of Israel, the occupying power.

Bahouth also stressed Arab support of a Middle East peace conference held in Paris on January 15, which reiterated the world community's commitment to the two-state solution as the sole means to bring about durable peace in the region.

The envoy also stressed that Jordan and the Arab countries totally and categorically reject all unilateral Israeli moves to change facts on the ground and undermine the two-state solution, calling on Israel to carry out international legitimacy resolutions, the latest of which was UN Security Council resolution 2334, which calls for a cessation of settlement activities and achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace.

She said the world community is called upon to recognise that the Middle East would not see peace and stability without ending the occupation and achieving the Palestinians' legitimate aspirations for an independent, sovereign and viable state on national Palestinian soil along June, 4,1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The Palestinian issue, she said, is the key to regional stability and that lifting the injustice on the Palestinians has been a global moral obligation, reiterating the Arabs' rejection of Israeli violations to change the legal and historic status quo in East Jerusalem and breaches against Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied city.

On Syria, Bahouth said that Arab countries reiterated their firm position in support of a political solution to the crisis that safeguards Syria's sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity as the only solution that guarantees a stable future for the Syrian people, calling for continuation of the Geneva talks and international aid to share the burden with countries hosting Syrian refugees.

The UN envoy also voiced Arab support of Iraq in the fight against terrorist organisations and the liberation of Mosul from Daesh, and the Saudi-led Arab coalition's efforts to restore the legitimacy in Yemen and end the crisis in the country. She also called for achieving security and stability in Libya and Somalia.