7 Arab states reject granting Israel observer status in African Union

ISTANBUL

Seven Arab nations on Tuesday informed the African Union (AU) of their objection to grant Israel observer status in the bloc.

Israeli Ambassador to Addis Ababa Aleli Admasu presented credentials to AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki on July 22, in which Israel was given observer status in the continental body.

Several Arab media outlets, including Egypt’s Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, said the embassies of Algeria, Egypt, Comoros, Tunisia, Djibouti, Mauritania and Libya in Ethiopia delivered a verbal note to Faki whose headquarters is in the Ethiopian capital in Addis Ababa.

The note included a rejection of granting observer status, a step that contradicts AU's support to the Palestinian cause and its principles.

It requested that the issue be put up for discussion in the AU's foreign ministers level meeting in October.

The newspaper added that the embassies of Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen and the Arab League mission in Addis Ababa expressed solidarity with the Arab countries on the issue.

Algeria said July 25 that the decision was taken without consultations.

Israel has established ties with six of 22 Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.

Relations deteriorated between African nations and Israel in the 1960s as Tel Aviv expanded and occupied Palestinian territories in 1967, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza,

Relations deteriorated between African nations and Israel in the 1960s as Tel Aviv expanded and occupied Palestinian territories in 1967, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, in addition to the Golan Heights in Syria the Sinai peninsula in Egypt.

But Egypt reclaimed the Sinai under a pact with Israel in 1979.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara