AMMAN — Fulfilling refugees’ humanitarian needs is a short-term solution to the repercussions of regional crises, towards which the international community must mobilise efforts to reach just political solutions that create favourable conditions for the return of refugees, which is a prerequisite for security and stability, Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Thursday.

 

During his participation in a session on the humanitarian aspects of refugee crises at the Warsaw-hosted “Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East” summit, which concluded on Thursday, Safadi said that "resolving the conflict that caused asylum is the key solution refugee crisis, which is greatly burdening the Kingdom ", according to a Foreign Ministry statement. 

 

Safadi noted that there are more than 5 million Palestinian refugees who need a just solution to their cause within the framework of a holistic solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in accordance with the resolutions of international legitimacy, the Arab Peace Initiative and the right to return and compensation.

 

At the session inaugurated by US Vice President Mike Pence, the foreign minister warned of the decline in support for UNRWA, stressing the need for providing assistance that enables the agency to continue to play its role in accordance with its UN mandate and until resolving the issue of Palestine refugees, which is one of the most important final status issues in accordance with international legitimacy resolutions.

 

The top diplomat explained the pressures posed by refugee crises on the Kingdom, which faces difficult economic conditions, calling on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards refugees and towards Jordan, which is overstretched and is doing everything it can to meet the needs of Syrian refugees in line with its humanitarian principles and heritage.

 

He added that meeting the needs of refugees, as well as providing education, services and dignified living for them is an investment in regional and international security, as abandoning the refugees and failing to meet their needs contribute to rooting sentiments of deprivation, despair and ignorance, creating an environment on which extremism feeds and “the forces of darkness” exploit to spread the culture of hatred, according to the statement.

 

Safadi said that terrorism is the opposite of peace, love and respect for the other, which are the values of Islam, the statement noted.

 

He stressed that the defeat of terrorism requires resolving crises and ending injustice, chaos and despair.

 

Resolving the Palestinian conflict on the basis of a two-state solution that ends the occupation and ensures the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on the lines of June 4, 1967, living in peace and security alongside Israel in accordance with the relevant international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative, is the only way to resolve the conflict and achieve lasting and comprehensive peace, Safadi affirmed.

 

“This is the solution that the world agrees on and there is no alternative to it,” Safadi added, stressing that the Kingdom’s known position is that peace is a right and a necessity for all the region’s peoples and the only way to achieve it by ending the occupation, thereby ending violence and fear and guaranteeing security.

 

In a comment on the Syrian crisis, Safadi stressed that there is no military solution to the conflict, which calls for upscaling efforts to reach a political one in accordance with UN Resolution 2254 that is accepted by the Syrians, preserves Syria’s unity and cohesion, restores Syria’s security and stability and creates conditions that allow the return of refugees to their homeland.

 

The foreign minister also stressed the need for supporting the reconstruction process in Iraq to consolidate its victory against terrorism. 

 

He reiterated that the crises of the region are intertwined and require a holistic effort to address them in order to achieve security, stability and prosperity.

 

Safadi stressed the rejection of external interference in the affairs of Arab countries and the need for relations in the region to be based on the principles of good neighbourliness.

 

On the sidelines of the conference, Safadi met with a number of his counterparts and discussed with them bilateral relations and the upcoming London conference to support the Jordanian economy, in addition to regional developments.