Ashraf AboArafe
The Arab League delegation, headed by Ambassador Ahmed Rashid Khattabi, Assistant Secretary-General and Head of the Media and Communications Sector, continued its participation in the tenth session of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Forum, currently being held in the Portuguese city of Cascais.
In this context, Ambassador Majed Abdel Fattah Abdel Aziz, Permanent Observer of the Arab League to the United Nations and member of the aforementioned delegation, presented an important paper on the axis related to the protection of religious facilities, in which he addressed the extreme danger of targeting places of worship in armed conflicts, referring in particular to the horrific destruction that included mosques in the Gaza Strip and a church, and the harsh treatment of worshipers by the Israeli occupation authorities, especially as a result of the repeated incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Ibrahimi Mosque, calling for taking the necessary measures to preserve these facilities and ensure their sanctity.
He stressed that the protection of religious facilities can be enhanced through cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, as is the case with the League of Arab States, which signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism in September 2024, aiming to support effective participation in the protection of religious sites, stressing the importance of implementing Security Council Resolution No. 2686 of 2023, which was adopted under the presidency of the United Arab Emirates.
