December 09, 2023, Ottawa: A group of foreign ministers from the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are in Ottawa today for a quietly planned meeting with Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly to discuss attempts to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also joined the talks, held to see how countries like Canada can contribute to efforts to secure peace for Palestinians and Israelis, after Hamas militants launched a deadly rampage in Israel on October 7.
The delegation is called the Extraordinary Arab-Islamic Summit and normally includes Jordan, although Joly’s office says that country needed to send its foreign minister for other business.
The group is not a joint peace project with Israel and says its leaders aim to speak on behalf of Arab and Muslim people after Israel’s bombardment of Gaza in response to the Hamas attack.
It is the first visit by the Saudi foreign minister to Canada since a diplomatic chill over human rights issues in 2018, when Riyadh recalled its ambassador from Ottawa and expelled Canada’s envoy.
Joly’s office says ministers must discuss political pathways toward comprehensive and lasting peace, with an emphasis on “self-determination, human rights and security” for Palestinians and Israelis.
They will also discuss the need to allow more humanitarian aid into the Palestinian territory.
The delegation is in Ottawa after going to Washington. The group has so far focused on the five members of the UN Security Council and the holder of the European Union presidency, Spain.
The group of ministers had already visited the capitals of China, France, Russia, Great Britain and the United States, as well as Spain.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Israel had the right to defend itself, while saying acts such as the “killing of women, children and babies” in Gaza undermined the possibility of a two-state solution , in which Israel and a Palestinian country could live peacefully next to each other.
It would follow a 1993 plan known as the Oslo Accord, approved by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank but not Gaza. Hamas did not support the agreement.
The Canadian government says Hamas must release its hostages and all foreigners must be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip, although Global Affairs Canada has stopped publishing the number of Canadians it says are still in the Gaza Strip. besieged territory.
Around 240 people were taken hostage in Hamas’s attack on Israel and the militants are still estimated to be holding more than 130 people, including a Canadian woman.
Israel and Hamas negotiated the release of 110 hostages captured in Israel in exchange for Palestinian prisoners during a week-long truce. Both camps blame each other for the resumption of hostilities.
The ministerial committee visiting Canada stressed the need to immediately end the “military escalation” in Gaza and advance the political process with the aim of establishing lasting peace.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Gaza was at “a breaking point” and the humanitarian support system was at risk of total collapse.
Guterres used rare power this week to call for a ceasefire, a move the United States vetoed at the Security Council. Israel has argued that an immediate ceasefire would only help Hamas prepare for more violent attacks, and says its priority is to suppress the group’s ability to inflict mass violence against Israelis.
The Associated Press reported Saturday that Israeli warplanes were striking parts of the Gaza Strip that include some of the dwindling plots of land to which Israeli officials have asked Palestinians to evacuate, in the territory’s south. This left Palestinians crowded onto a narrow strip of barren coastline.
Joly said negotiations between Israel and Hamas were necessary to end the conflict, although Canada did not follow some European countries in calling for an immediate ceasefire.
The Palestinian Authority is the internationally recognized body that speaks on behalf of the Palestinians, including in negotiations aimed at a two-state solution. The group controls the West Bank but not Gaza, which has been under Hamas control since 2007.
