Algeria to lead UN Security Council meetings on Syria and Gaza
Amar Bendjama, Algeria’s UN envoy has voiced ‘great concern’ for the worsening situation in Gaza and announced a UN Security Council session on Friday 3rd January to address Israeli assaults on hospitals in Gaza. This was reported by Anadolu Agency on 2nd January.
Algeria is set to oversee the Security Council in January 2025, taking the helm from the United States, and Bendjama said that they aim to ‘highlight the suffering of Palestine’ and that the humanitarian crisis ‘remains one of the absolute priorities of Algeria’.
Bendjama further went on to reaffirm the importance of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
The envoy also announced that a high-level meeting on the Palestine conflict will be held at the Council and will be chaired by Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf on 20th January.
He emphasised that “as an Arab member of the Security Council, issues related to the Arab region, particularly the situations in Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, as well as Yemen remain our major concern.”
When asked to comment on the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which encourages a cease-fire and political settlement in Syria, Bendjama identified ‘the principles on which we can build a better future for all Syrians.”
He further went on to comment on the recent developments in Syria: “our position is that we should help the Syrian people to overcome this transition and not putting conditions on the process, which will be, should be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned,” he said.
Regarding the potential removal of Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from the UN list of terrorist organisation, he said: “It will be up to the Council.”
HTS, which has taken control over the Syrian government following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad in December.
Bendjama said that there is a planned UN Security Council meeting on Syria on the 8th of January and that there will be discussion on “the best way to help the Syrian people to rebuild its country and to rebuild its governance.”
Anadolu Agency
