President Cyril Ramaphosa wants the Middle East peace process to be revised. Picture: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
President Cyril Ramaphosa will continue to seek the revival of the Middle East peace process to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas, which is now in its third week.
Ramaphosa was working with his Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, to engage all sides in the conflict.
The president attended a summit in Egypt last weekend, where he was invited along with a number of leaders from the Middle East, Europe, and other parts of the globe to find a peaceful solution.
Pandor was addressing the UN Security Council this week, which was debating the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, said on Thursday that the president was urging all sides to negotiate as it was the only means to achieve peace.
He said Ramaphosa wanted the Middle East process to be revived.
“The president as well as the minister of international relations will remain engaged with various stakeholders and will remain engaged in discussing ways in which we can access humanitarian aid and we can revive that peace process as soon as possible so that we can alleviate the extent of human suffering that we have witnessed in that region,” said Magwenya.
He said the summit in Egypt last weekend was attended by close to 19 countries.
The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, convened the peace summit.
Magwenya said leaders who attended the Cairo summit supported South Africa’s position on how the conflict should be resolved.
“As you know, the purpose of that summit was to rally the international community behind a couple of key principles. The first being an immediate end to the fighting and violence. The second one being opening up humanitarian corridors to assist scores of people who are in need of basic necessities as well as people in need of medical assistance. The third one being the revival of the peace process and calling on some of the influential countries to assist the warring parties towards a peace process,” said Magwenya.
The leaders who attended the summit expressed support for the three principles.
Thousands of people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict started.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Politics