The speech of his Excellency Dr. Rashad Al-Alimi, President of the Presidential Leadership Council at the Jeddah, 32nd Arab League Summit, May 19, 2023 Jeddah

In the Name of Allah, the Most Benevolent, the Most Merciful,

 

My brother, Your Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the fraternal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,

Your Majesties, Your Excellences, Your Highnesses, the Kings, Princes and Heads of State and Government of

Brotherly Arab States,

Your Excellency Mr. Ahmed Aboul Gheit,

Secretary General of the League of Arab States,

Excellencies,

At the outset, I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of my brother, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and his Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for the generous hosting of this summit, for the warm welcome and hospitality we enjoyed, for their well-known efforts for the unity of the nation, and for their defense of its interests and aspirations for development, stability, and peace.

I would like also to extend my thanks and appreciation for our brothers in Algeria, the leadership and the government, for their genuine efforts during their presidency of the previous Arab Summit at a difficult stage in the history of our nation.

I also seize this opportunity to express our great appreciation for the efforts of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Ahmed Abu Al-Gheit, his assistants, and his work team, in supporting the cause of our people and their right to restore state institutions, and to end the coup of the Houthi militia backed by the Iranian regime.

Our gratitude extended to you, brothers, for your firm positions on the Yemeni issue, foremost among which are the countries of the Coalition to Support Legitimacy, led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, which carried out in our land, one of the greatest Arab epics in deterring threats to the nation during the modern era.

It is also a sincere appreciation to our brothers in Egypt and Jordan who opened the doors of their countries to receive hundreds of thousands of our people seeking a safe haven from the brutality of the militias, and to facilitate their access to treatment, education and a decent life.

 

Your Majesties, your Excellencies and your Highnesses,

 

This summit is taking place at a time when our people are still suffering from the scourge of war sparked by the Houthi militia since its coup against the national consensus in September 2014 with the support of the Iranian regime, desperate to complete its destructive project in the region with the continued division of our Arab system, and its inability to respond to crises and armed conflicts that threaten with the collapse of the national state, and its bulldozing in favor of external expansionist projects that are alien to our society, our Arab identity, and our cultural and social heritage.

I hope that we will be inspired by the steadfastness of our peoples, and their enormous sacrifices in resisting these projects, to bring about the desired transformation, and to invest our meetings in restoring the initiative and agreeing on common policies that respond to the will of the nation, uphold its interests, and place it above all considerations.

Therefore, we are confident that the Jeddah summit in the blessed land of the Two Holy Mosques will represent an important turning point for approving ways to approach the national and collective crises, and overcoming their challenges with pure Arab management and will.

 

Your Majesties, Excellencies and Highnesses,

 

Nearly seven months after the Algiers Summit was held, those hopes that we brought to you to renew the truce are still facing intransigence on the part of the Houthi militia, without regard for the suffering of millions of our citizens at home and abroad.

Here, we are today, again, awaiting the fruits of the relentless efforts led by our brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman to revive the same truce that we unilaterally committed to continuing, in order to end the suffering of our people, and to miss any opportunity for the militias to return to a comprehensive escalation.

Instead of showing good intentions towards government initiatives, these militias continue for the eighth month to prevent commercial ships and tankers from reaching oil export ports, seeking to crush the gains made in the liberated governorates, including the regular payment of employee salaries, and impeding opportunities to expand salary payment to include employees in areas under the force control of the militias.

These militias also continue their threats to neighboring countries, international peace and security, by deploying more Iranian drones, naval mines, booby-trapped boats, and gross violations of human rights. These stories are told to us as stories from hell, by our sons who breathed the air of freedom in the exchange of detainees after years of absence and enforced disappearance.

Nevertheless, the militias are currently working to mobilize more than a million children into extremist mobilization camps, which would destroy our social fabric and the values of coexistence that the Yemeni people have pursued throughout history.

Therefore, dear brothers, we hope for a collective Arab movement alongside our brothers in the Coalition to Support Legitimacy in order to stop these egregious violations of international law, support the Yemeni government's efforts to revive the economy, improve basic services, life-saving humanitarian interventions, and the initiatives of brothers and friends to resume the political process in accordance with the terms of reference of the Gulf initiative, its executive mechanism, the outcomes of the Comprehensive National Dialogue conference, and the relevant Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 2216.

 

Your Majesties, Excellencies and Highnesses,

 

In the Presidential Leadership Council and the government, we cautiously welcomed the agreement between the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran, hoping that this would lead to a new phase of positive relations in the region that is in the interest of the Iranian people, stopping the destructive adventures of his regime, and stopping interference in our internal affairs.

 

I seize this opportunity to commend the efforts of the Member States and the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, which led to the resumption of the participation of the Syrian Arab Republic in the meetings of the Arab League on the road to resolving the Syrian crisis according to the principle of step for step, in a way that guarantees the unity and integrity of the brotherly country, and the restoration of its historical role in Arab joint action.

We commend the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, which culminated in the signing of a declaration of principles by the brothers in Sudan to secure humanitarian actions and protect civilians, in preparation for constructive talks that restore stability, peace and development to this loyal country.

The Republic of Yemen also affirms its full commitment to supporting the right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative and international resolutions and legislation, and condemns the continuous Israeli escalation and its settlement measures that undermine the chances of peace, regional and international security.

 

Your Majesties, Excellencies and Highnesses,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

In conclusion, I would like to express our sincere wishes for a successful summit led by my brother, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, and his Crown Prince, His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This summit, we are confident will represent an additional leap in the course of joint Arab action, and the unification of its mechanisms in supporting the efforts of brothers and friends to restore Yemeni state institutions, ending the Houthi militia coup, as a victory for the patience and sacrifices of our people, and their right to freedom, human dignity, security, stability and prosperity.

Thank you,

May Allah’s peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.