- Ashraf AboArafe
The General Secretariat of the League of Arab States (LAS) expressed its great dissatisfaction and astonishment the Argentine President Javier Mele’s withdrawal at the last minute from attending a meeting he was scheduled to attend the day before yesterday, June 7, with the Council of Ambassadors of the Arab and Islamic Groups in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, under the pretext of the presence of the Chargé d’Affairs of the Embassy of Palestine in the audience.
The General Secretariat confirms that such behavior reflects a hostile and unjustified position not only towards the State of Palestine, but also towards the Arab group. It also regrets the occurrence of such an undiplomatic and unacceptable position from the head of a country for which the Arabs have great respect for its previous positive positions on the Palestinian issue, which have been reversed. Unfortunately, at the hands of the current political administration.
In this regard, it is noteworthy that he had coordinated with the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the attendance list, while emphasizing that there is no way to exclude the representative of the Palestinian state accredited to the Argentine authorities from any group meetings of the Arab and Islamic groups, as required by established diplomatic norms.
The General Secretariat of the League hopes that the State of Argentina will review its recent positions on the Palestinian issue, which involve blatant bias towards the occupation and standing on the wrong side of history, out of concern for the extended relations with the Arab world and the mutual political and economic interests between the two sides.
