3 yıl önce

Turkey rejects 'baseless' Arab League accusations

Ankara's reaction comes after the bloc accused Turkey of forcing intervention "on our Arab brotherland".

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Turkey asks league members to end their "insistence on stereotypical accusations against our country with aims to cover up their destructive activities."

Ankara has rejected "completely baseless" accusations by the Arab League that called for end to intervention that "Turkey forces on our Arab brotherland."

Some members of the league [must] end their "insistence on stereotypical accusations against our country with aims to cover up their destructive activities," Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Friday in a statement.

Turkey said the Arab League decisions targeting Turkey were "unrequited" among the people of "friendly and brotherly" Arab countries.

The Turkish ministry was responding to comments made by Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry on Wednesday who said the league wants to "end all foreign intervention in Libya... with the necessity of a ceasefire to be respected."

"We confirm through the second Arab ministers meeting this morning to follow up on the Turkish intervention," Shukry said.

"We reject completely the continuation of the Turkish intervention in the region that Turkey forces on our Arab brotherland."

Egyptian diplomat re-elected as league chief

On March 3, the foreign ministers of Arab League member countries convened in Egypt's capital Cairo, where the chairmanship of the meeting was transferred from Egypt to Qatar.

Arab foreign ministers reappointed a veteran Egyptian diplomat as the Secretary-General of the Cairo-based Arab League.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, a former ambassador to the United Nations and Egypt's last foreign minister under ousted president Hosni Mubarak, won the backing of the Arab foreign ministers meeting in the Egyptian capital.

Aboul Gheit has been known to be a pragmatic diplomat with strong enmity for political Islam factions like the Muslim Brotherhood.

He has been vocal against Turkey and Iran, two regional powers with major influences in the Arab world.

Arab League must prioritise peace

Turkey also emphasised that some league members had voiced their opposition to the decisions that had been "adopted as a result of imposition by various actors without conducting a transparent negotiation process between the member countries."

With its "principled and resolute stance," Turkey is one of the countries that devotes the greatest effort to ensure "regional and global peace," Turkish Foreign Ministry said.

It said preserving the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political unity of the Arab countries were among Turkey's top priorities for the region.

"We again invite the Arab League to prioritise the peace, prosperity and well-being of the Arab people and to constructively contribute to the establishment of security and stability in the region, instead of targeting our country with baseless allegations," the ministry added.

SOURCE: AAAP